News
News Categories

Qualcomm is reportedly against NVIDIA's acquisition of ARM

By Cookie Monster - on 14 Feb 2021, 12:00am

Qualcomm is reportedly against NVIDIA's acquisition of ARM

Sources familiar with the matter told CNBC that Qualcomm has voiced its objection to NVIDIA's acquisition of ARM.

According to CNBC's report, Qualcomm has informed the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the European Commission, the U.K's Competition and Markets Authority, and China's State Administration for Market Regulation of its concerns about the acquisition.

If the acquisition is approved, the chipmaker believes there is a high risk that NVIDIA will become a gatekeeper of ARM's technology and prevent other chipmakers from using ARM's intellectual property. Other industry players such as Graphcore and Huawei also shared similar concerns.

Graphcore CEO Nigel Toon thinks the acquisition will risk "closing down or limiting other companies' access to leading-edge CPU processor designs which are so important across the technology world, from data centers, to mobile, to cars and in embedded devices of every kind."

Chinese chipmakers have informed the government to block the acquisition as they believe they could be at a disadvantage if ARM is bought over by a U.S company.

The FTC's investigation is currently in the "second phase" and it has asked SoftBank, NVIDIA and ARM to provide more information. This process is likely to take several month as the three companies need to submit many large documents. FTC will also seek other companies who may have relevant information that could help it make a decision.

Source: CNBC

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.