Nvidia-Arm plays "strong-Intel" card in UK deal probe

By Peter Clarke, eeNews Europe (January 11, 2022)

Arm has failed to break into the data center and PC markets significantly because of the strength of Intel and its x86 architecture and therefore Arm needs to be bought by Nvidia to prosper, according to a 28-page submission to UK government's Competition and Markets Authority.

The paper – from GPU chip vendor Nvidia and IP licensor Arm – provides multiple arguments in favour of allowing the former to acquire the latter IP and has been published by the CMA an initial submission as part of the 'Phase 2' investigation of the deal (see UK orders more scrutiny of Nvidia-ARM deal).

The deal was originally proposed back in September 2020 but it has received a lot of criticism on the basis that Nvidia competes with companies that are licensees of ARM cores and architecture. The deal is facing scrutiny by competition authorities in the UK, Europe, the US and China.

There is the possibility that one or other of these may block the deal altogether Extended inquiries mean that the deal is likely to miss a target date of March 2021, which would be 18 months from the deal's announcement.

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