Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in his usual leather jacket.
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LONDON – The UK’s competition and markets authority, competition and markets, announced on Wednesday that it plans to investigate Nvidia’s proposed acquisition of British chip designer Arm.
Nvidia announced plans to buy the Cambridge-based company from SoftBank for $ 40 billion last September and critics have called on governments and regulators to investigate the deal ever since.
The CMA said it invites third parties to give their views on how the deal will affect competition in the UK before launching a formal investigation later this year.
“The chip technology industry is worth billions and is critical to many of the products we use most in our daily lives,” Andrea Coscelli, CMA’s executive director, said in a statement.
“We will work closely with other competition authorities around the world to carefully consider the impact of the agreement and ensure that it ultimately does not result in consumers facing more expensive or lower quality products,” he said. add Coscelli.
With 6,500 employees, including 3,000 in the UK, Arm is widely regarded as the crown jewel of the British technology industry. Its chips power most smartphones in the world, as well as many other devices.
The executive chairman of the arm, Simon Segars, told CNBC in December that he expects regulators to “look good” at the deal.
“There are regulatory approvals to move to many jurisdictions around the world,” Segars said last month. “This is an extracted process. There is a lot of interaction that needs to continue with regulators to provide the information they want.”
When the acquisition was announced, Nvidia and Arm said they hoped to complete the deal in early 2022.
Two British investors in technology predicted last October that the acquisition would be blocked.
Nvidia did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.