UK government is dissatisfied with the preliminary investigation of Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM, and the second phase of the investigation will be launched
Regarding the transaction between Nvidia and ARM, government agencies in some major markets are currently investigating, mainly because Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM may have an adverse impact on the industry, which is much more complicated than SoftBank’s acquisition of ARM. Japan’s Softbank controlled by Masayoshi Son is mainly for investment purposes. Softbank Group has no direct competition with the semiconductor industry, but the situation is different after the acquisition subject is changed to NVIDIA. It is also the chip manufacturing business community that is worried that the acquisition of NVIDIA will not be conducive to the development of the semiconductor industry.
The most violent response to this was the British government. As one of the representative companies in the British technology industry, the acquisition of ARM by Nvidia made the British government feel a crisis, although Nvidia has promised that ARM’s headquarters will still be in Cambridge, England after the acquisition.
According to Reuters, the British government is dissatisfied with the preliminary investigation into Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM. For this reason, Britain’s Digital and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries will ask the UK Competition and Market Authority to conduct a “phase two” probe of the deal next week. The second phase of the investigation may last for six months. After the investigation is over, British government officials can block the transaction, approve it as it is, or require relevant parties to make concessions.
The British government declined to comment on the above news, but Nvidia said that the company will continue to cooperate with the British government to solve the problem. Nvidia also said that the second phase of the possible investigation will show in detail how the company will improve ARM’s competitiveness after the acquisition. Of course, in addition to the United Kingdom, other major market regulators are bound to conduct investigations, including the European Union, China, and the United States, which are also very concerned about this transaction. After all, the market occupied by ARM is too large to consider too many potential impacts.
In addition, although Nvidia emphasizes that it will continue to adopt an open licensing model and treat all customers fairly after acquiring ARM, the industry does not seem to be optimistic about this. For example, in the United States, Microsoft, Google, and Qualcomm have jointly sent a letter to the US antitrust agency hoping to intervene in this transaction.
