The United States Federal Trade Commission opened an in-depth review of Nvidia’s planned acquisition of SoftBank’s computer chip design group, placing it at the forefront of what is expected to be a series of investigations around the world in an agreement with broad ramifications across the technology industry.
The agency sent requests for comment to companies that have already filed complaints or may be affected by the deal, according to two people familiar with the measure. European and UK regulators are preparing for their own investigations, and executives involved in the deal also see China as a potential threat.
Qualcomm, a leading manufacturer of mobile communications chips, is among the companies that have already signaled their dissatisfaction to regulators, according to a person familiar with the analysis. The deal has also generated concern for many of Arm’s other customers in the five months since it was announced.
Arm’s designs for low-power chips are used as the basis for processors on most smartphones. Nvidia said it wants to buy the company primarily to extend the use of its projects even further in data centers, where the demands for artificial intelligence and cloud computing have led to the need for more energy-efficient processors.
This potentially put Nvidia on a collision course with some of the biggest technology companies, which buy large volumes of data center chips. Some, including Amazon, have also started to design their own Arm-based processors.
If authorized to buy Arm, Nvidia could favor its own data center chip business at the expense of other companies that also use Arm’s designs, according to a company official who disagreed with the deal.
Another complained that Nvidia would have access to sensitive data about its competitors, as these companies share their future product plans with Arm in order 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 ensure a transparent and collaborative relationship with customers. licensed by Arm ”.