Arm-Nvidia: Europe investigates chip-designer sale

The European Commission has opened a competition investigation into Nvidia's acquisition of British chip-design company Arm.

The $40bn (£29bn) deal was announced in September.

Regulators are concerned Nvidia could use the move to restrict access to Arm's technology, which powers the vast majority of the world's smartphones.

Nvidia has promised it will maintain Arm's open-licensing model.

Officials said the technology giant, the world's largest graphic and artificial-intelligence chip-maker, had offered concessions in an attempt to address its concerns.

But the commission said it still had "serious doubts" about the deal, which it believes could result in:

"Our analysis shows that the acquisition of Arm by Nvidia could lead to restricted or degraded access to Arm's IP [intellectual property], with distortive effects in many markets where semiconductors are used," European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said.

Nvidia said it remained hopeful it could address the regulators' worries and move forward with the acquisition.

"We look forward to the opportunity to address their initial concerns and continue demonstrating that the transaction will help to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation, including in the [European Union]," a representative said.

The commission has until 15 March 2022 to decide whether to clear the deal.

The chip companies had originally hoped to complete the deal by March next year- but that now looks unlikely.