European Union: EU Commission launches inquiry into NVIDIA/Arm merger

On 27 October 2021, the European Commission opened an investigation into NVIDIA's planned acquisition of Arm Ltd to determine if the merger could negatively impact the competition and innovation in the semiconductor industry. The company Arm licenses the intellectual property (IP) on processing units to developers of semiconductor chipmakers and systems-on-chip. NVIDIA develops graphics processing units and system on chip units for data centres, automotive applications and gaming. Regarding the acquisition, the Commission noted that Arm has "significant market power" on the market for licensing its IP on processing units, and if acquired it could restrict the access of NVIDIA’s competitors to the technology. The Commission has until 15 March 2022 to decide if the proposed acquisition of Arm would interfere with the effective competition in the European Economic Area.