October 28, 2021
On Wednesday, EU antitrust regulators announced a four-month investigation into the nature of Nvidia’s $54 billion bid for British chipmaker ARM.
Regulators also pointed out that the deal could potentially harm competition by offering less choice, leading to higher prices and ultimately less innovation.
According to the EU’s Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, there are fears that the deal could affect Arm’s neutrality, as the company licenses its designs to a wide range of companies, including Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm, many of which compete with each other and Nvidia.
There are fears that having Nvidia control Arm may result in Nvidia’s competitors being put at a disadvantage.
The EU will also examine how the deal could affect the way competitors share information with Arm and whether Nvidia could change Arm’s research and development outcomes to make its product more profitable, to the detriment of those who use Arm’s other technology.
The deadline for a decision by EU antitrust authorities is March 15.
For more information, read the original story in Reuters.
