Nvidia CEO admits that the acquisition of ARM may be postponed

In September of last year, Nvidia announced that it would purchase ARM from SoftBank for $40 billion in cash and stock. The initial plan was to complete it within 18 months, which is March 2022. However, with all parties’ doubts and objections, as well as stricter review by relevant regulatory agencies, it is likely that this transaction will be forced to choose to postpone until September 2022. However, until now, the transaction has not been approved by the regulatory agencies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, the European Union, and China. If the final transaction fails, Nvidia will have to pay $1.25 billion in fees.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admitted that Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM is expected to be postponed due to regulatory review of the transaction. Jensen Huang said that the discussion between Nvidia and the regulators was longer than initially expected, so the transaction timetable was postponed, but the transaction is still full of confidence, and the relevant regulators should recognize the benefits of this transaction.For transaction delays, perhaps Nvidia also has to bear part of the responsibility. For example, Nvidia has not submitted the documents required for the review to the European Commission before, resulting in the agency’s review work has not even started, since the documents have not been submitted before July 26, Nvidia will have to wait until the beginning of September to submit the documents.

Jensen Huang’s statement this time shows that Nvidia cannot pass the regulatory review in a short period of time. At least at this point in March 2022, the transaction cannot be completed. If the transaction progresses slowly, ARM will be forced to consider an IPO, which has always been a backup plan for SoftBank and ARM.