In the latest twist in the Nvidia-Arm acquisition saga, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against Nvidia in an effort to block its $40 billion purchase of ARM.
The FTC’s rationale behind the move is to prevent the stifling of innovation it believes will result if the merger continues. Moreover, the FCC believes that Nvidia will have an unfair advantage in accessing sensitive information over competitors such as Qualcomm, Samsung and Apple because these companies rely on Arm-licensed chip designs.
It was initially expected that the merger of the two companies would take 18 months to complete but now it appears that will not be the case.
The US Federal Trade Commission expects the administrative trial to begin on August 9, 2022.
Nvidia has since issued a statement that it will continue to “work to demonstrate that this transaction will benefit the industry and promote good competition.”
Nvidia has also reinstated its plans to keep the open Arm licensing model, which it says will create more opportunities for all companies that use licensed Arm designs.
