According to reports from CNBC, Microsoft, Google and Qualcomm have voiced concerns to regulators about the acquisition of Nvidia Arm. and BloombergThe companies have approached regulators in the US, EU, UK and China, reportedly with concern that Nvidia could change how Arm licenses its chipmaking technology.
Nvidia has pledged it will not use its control over the company to change the way it interacts with other companies. Write to it Financial timesNvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he “could say unequivocally that Nvidia will maintain Arm’s open licensing model. We do not intend to “throttle” or “refuse” the delivery of Arm to a customer. “
However, Nvidia’s rivals argue that keeping Arm neutral and not using its technology for Nvidia’s own profits is not what the company would be boosted for – especially after paying $ 40 billion for it. However, restrictions on licensing would be detrimental to the companies benefiting from the ability to license Arm’s technology. Google and Microsoft are reportedly working on their own Arm-based chips, and Qualcomm’s processors are based on the architecture.
For its part, Nvidia has argued that the acquisition is about boosting AI, an area that Nvidia has focused heavily on, from the machine learning-powered upscaling of its graphics cards to its work in self-driving cars. Arm’s energy-efficient technology could help Nvidia spread AI to more places, but the company will also need to figure out what to do with everything else Arm does – primarily, power nearly every existing cell phone and put the key in holding hands to relocate computer companies. away from Intel.
Regulators also apparently look closely at the deal to determine whether it would give Nvidia too much power in chip manufacturing: according to CNBC the Federal Trade Commission has asked Nvidia and Arm to provide more information, and it could talk to “other companies who may have relevant information.”
Meanwhile, UK and EU officials have pledged to “thoroughly investigate” the deal. It is very likely that they will hear many objections not only from Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm, but also from others in the chip industry who are concerned about the impact of the merger on their open licensing agreement with Arm.
These companies have experience with regulators and anti-competitive behavior. Qualcomm has had to pay several hundreds of millions and sometimes billions of dollars in fines to authorities in China, South Korea and the EU for anti-competitive licensing policies. Microsoft, of course, had its big monopoly case in the 1990s when it rebelled against the US government, and Google has recently been at the center of growing antitrust sentiment in the US and the EU.