The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has made an in-depth review of Nvidia’s planned acquisition of SoftBank’s computer chip design group Arm, putting it at the forefront of what is expected to be a series of investigations around the world into a deal with wide-ranging implications in the technology industry.
The agency has sent requests for comment to companies that have already filed complaints or may be related to the deal, two people familiar with the move said. European and UK regulators are gearing up for their own investigation, and executives involved in the deal also see China as a potential threat.
Qualcomm, the leading manufacturer of mobile communications chips, is one of the companies that has already reported their displeasure to regulators, said a person familiar with the review. The deal has also raised concerns among many of Arm’s other customers in the five months since its announcement.
Arm’s designs for low-power chips are used as the basis for the processors in most smartphones. Nvidia primarily plans to buy the company to further extend the use of its designs to data centers, where the demands of artificial intelligence and cloud computing have created a need for more energy-efficient processors.
That may have put Nvidia on a collision course with some of the largest technology companies, which purchase large quantities of data center chips. Some, including Amazon, have also started designing their own Arm-based processors.
If allowed to buy Arm, Nvidia may prefer its own data center chip company to the detriment of other companies that also use Arm’s designs, an official at a company that has contested the deal said.
Another complained that Nvidia would gain access to sensitive data about its competitors as these companies share their future product plans with Arm to improve the company’s designs.
Nvidia declined to comment on whether it had been contacted by the FTC, but said it was “confident that both regulators and customers will see the benefits of our plan to continue Arm’s open licensing model and a transparent partnership. to insure with Arm’s licensees ”.