(Reuters) – The United States Federal Trade Commission opened an in-depth investigation into Nvidia Corp’s deal to acquire Arm Ltd, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a source.
The FTC sent requests for information to third parties, according to Bloomberg.
The FTC and Nvidia did not respond to requests for comment outside normal working hours.
Nvidia struck a deal with Japan’s SoftBank Group in September to buy UK-based chip designer Arm Holdings for up to $ 40 billion.
In addition to the FTC investigation, Alphabet Inc, Qualcomm Inc and Microsoft Corp complained to US antitrust regulators about the deal, the report added, citing people familiar with the process.
Arm Holdings provides intellectual property to Apple, Qualcomm and a host of others for chips that power almost every smartphone in the world.
In early January, Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said it would launch an investigation into Nvidia’s deal to buy Arm.
Reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Leslie Adler