The British government will investigate the consequences of the national security of the American group Nvidia (NVDA.O)’s purchase of the British disk designer ARM Holdings, he said on Monday and questioned the $ 40 billion agreement.
Digital Minister Oliver Dowden said on Monday he had issued a so-called ‘intervention notice’ on the sale of ARM by the Japanese SoftBank (9984.T) to Nvidia.
“As a next step and to help me gather the relevant information, the UK’s independent competition authority will now compile a report on the implications of the transaction, which will help inform any further decisions,” he said. he said.
Nvidia has said it does not believe the case has any significant national security issues.
“We will continue to work closely with the UK authorities, as we have done since the announcement of this agreement,” said Nvidia, the largest US chip market capitalization company.
ARM is a major player in global semiconductors, a sector that is fundamental to technologies ranging from artificial intelligence and quantum computers to 5G telecommunications networks.
Semiconductors also underpin Britain’s critical national infrastructure and are in defense and national security technologies, the government said, and security community officials were informed of the decision to intervene.
The Competition and Markets Authority will assess the impact of the deal on competition, jurisdiction and national security, with a report due by July 30, the government said.
Dowden will then decide whether to close the deal, with or without ventures from the companies involved, or refer it for a lengthy, in-depth investigation.
The takeover, announced in September, puts key supplies to several single-player manufacturers under the control of a single player.
ARM, which was founded and is still based in Cambridge, England, does not make chips, but has created an instruction set architecture on which the designs for computer core are based.
Its disk design and technology is licensed to customers such as Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O), Apple (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS).
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