UK Govt. Doesn’t Like ARM Takeover By Nvidia

There are new headwinds against the takeover of the British company ARM by the US group Nvidia. The British government has objections to national security and now wants to investigate the effects in a process. It might be a difficult decision for both companies that are agreed to plunge into a deal.

Last fall, the decision that the US chip company Nvidia won the bid to take over ARM was a surprise. But now the list of those who oppose the deal is getting longer and longer. After the big competitors, above all Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm, had spoken out against the takeover, the British government now “stops”. This is reported by Reuters.

$40 Billion Deal Could Be Delayed?

The British government will therefore examine the effects of the purchase of the British chip designer ARM Holdings by the US company Nvidia on national security, it said on Monday – with which the 40 billion US dollar deal could now actually be on the brink. Because the takeover requires the approval of the responsible authorities.

The British digital minister Oliver Dowden confirmed to Reuters that he had issued a so-called “intervention notice” on the sale of ARM by the Japanese SoftBank to Nvidia. “As a next step, and to help me gather the relevant information, the UK independent competition authority will now prepare a report on the impact of the transaction,” he said. Nvidia reacted calmly in an initial statement and announced that the deal did not see any major problems for national security.

“We will continue to work closely with the UK authorities, as we have done since the announcement of this deal,” Nvidia wrote in a reply to Reuters. ARM is a major player in the global semiconductor industry, a sector fundamental to technologies from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to 5G telecommunications networks. Therefore, the British government wants to carefully examine the effects of a merger with the US group.