UK Government Blocks NVIDIA’s Acquisition Of ARM

Last year, it was announced that NVIDIA would be acquiring ARM. This is quite a huge deal as ARM’s technology is basically behind almost every smartphone chipset out there, and then some. So obviously NVIDIA owning the company that’s kind of like the backbone of the entire smartphone market is a massive thing.

Unfortunately for NVIDIA, it seems that this acquisition isn’t going as smoothly as they would like. This is because the UK government has decided that they don’t like this deal and have officially opposed it.

This is based on Section 42 of The Enterprise Act 2002 where it states that the government can suspend an acquisition of a UK-based facility if there is doubt that two or more enterprises will cease to be distinct, or if there is concern that the company doing the acquisition will fold the other company into their operations and stops making them unique.

Basically, it sounds like the government is concerned that NVIDIA acquiring ARM could result in ARM being shut down (eventually) or folded into NVIDIA’s operations and cease to exist. NVIDIA did state previously that their acquisition would not affect ARM’s current open-licensing model and customer neutrality, but we guess that’s not enough for the UK government. NVIDIA also stated that they would keep the company’s HQ in Cambridge.

Interestingly, the UK government isn’t alone in their opposition. Other huge tech companies had also voiced their opposition when the announcement was first made. That being said, this isn’t the end because in a statement made to CNBC, an NVIDIA spokesperson was quoted as saying, “We do not believe that this transaction poses any material national security issues. We will continue to work closely with the British authorities, as we have done since the announcement of this deal.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: ARM, Legal, NVIDIA