The U.S. FTC demands to block the recent purchase of ARM by graphics chip company Nvidia.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit to block Nvidia’s recent$ 40 billion purchase of ARM.
Antitrust officials argue that the purchase would damage competition in the semiconductor market by giving Nvidia control over production reaching rival companies that also develop chips.
“The FTC is suing to block the largest semiconductor chip merger in history to prevent a chip conglomerate from stifling the line of innovation for next-generation technologies,” said the director of the FTC’s Office of Competition Holly Vedova in the statement.
Buy under magnifying glass
ARM licenses its blueprints to major chip manufacturers such as Apple, Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics, which support the smartphone ecosystem. For that reason, the purchase of ARM is under the microscope.
Nvidia said that ” as we move forward on this next step in the FTC process, we will continue to work to demonstrate that this transaction will benefit the industry and promote competition,” according to Reuters.
The US company agreed to buy ARM from Softbank in September 2020, which has sparked reaction from big rival companies, customers and politicians. However, Nvidia alleges that the ARM transition will be closed only in 2022.
