The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the United States trade body, is suing Nvidia's planned acquisition of ARM for $40 billion.
According to the FTC, if the acquisition occurs, Nvidia will dominate the market too much and hinder competition. Nvidia and ARM will be too master chip technology and design.
The FTC threatened to block the largest acquisition in the history of the semiconductor, which was disputed by many.
"Semiconductor chips power the computers and technologies that are critical to the modern economy and society. The combination of the two companies will hinder further technology and innovation, including the technology used in data centers and control systems in cars," the FTC said in a statement.
As is known, Nvidia has agreed to buy ARM from SoftBank, an investment company from Japan, in September 2020. At that time, Nvidia estimated that the acquisition agreement would be completed in 18 months.
However, the acquisition received opposition from many parties, both from technology companies and from related governments, namely the UK (ARM base), the United States (Nvidia base), and also China.
Even the European Commission has now officially investigated the acquisition, to be precise since a month ago.
"We will continue to explain that this acquisition transaction will benefit the industry and promote competition. Nvidia is committed to maintaining ARM's open licensing model and ensuring that its intellectual property is available to all interested parties, both now and in the future," said Nvidia spokesman in a statement.
The FTC itself plans to cooperate with relevant bodies in the European Union, UK, Japan, and South Korea. His trial is expected to begin on August 9, 2022.
The main problem with the acquisition is that ARM is the holder of design patents for almost all the chips used by many other companies. If the acquisition is successful, then the patent will certainly go to Nvidia, which is also a chip maker.
It is feared, Nvidia will prevent other companies from using ARM's chip architecture design, and master it themselves.