Nvidia's Arm Deal Faces UK National Security Probe

Nvidia's bid for British chipmaker Arm faces a national security review in the U.K., in another potential pitfall for a deal under intense scrutiny from antitrust regulators across the world. From a report: The Competition and Markets Authority has been instructed to carry out the review alongside a closer look at whether there are competition concerns, Nadine Dorries, Secretary of State for Culture and Digital said in a statement Tuesday. The U.K. has been amping up oversight of deals that may affect defense and has weighed a potential veto of Nvidia's takeover bid. The minister's decision is separate to the nation's antitrust review of how the deal may affect rivals and customers. Companies can allay security and antitrust concerns by selling off units or making binding pledges. "Arm has a unique place in the global technology supply chain and we must make sure the implications of this transaction are fully considered," Dorries said.

Editor Dave beat you to it

[WoodstockJeff]

https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]

I think they are confused

[Carewolf]

This is an Arm deal, not an Arms deal.

Can we get more coverage on this story?

[nightflameauto]

I'm pretty sure I only saw it posted six times in the last four days. Surely we can do better than that?

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[Brandano]

Though the earlier ones were antitrust concerns rather than the national security involvement. Having control of a semiconductor production facility, especially while there's a global semiconductor shortage, does have strategic value. Nvidia is a big enough chip manufacturer that they could afford to buy ARM just to shut it down, while the current owners are not in the chip manufacturing business and have no reason to see them as potential competitors.

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[nightflameauto]

I'm sure I've seen the national security story at least three times before, if not more. But then again, all the stories sort of blend together some days on here. Tough to keep track.

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[Aighearach]

Not only does ARM not have a semiconductor production facility, they'd don't even design semiconductors!

They just make an instruction set, and the related software tooling. Companies then license that instruction set, and design semiconductors (processors) that implement it.

The whole point is just that the C compilers will work the same, libraries will be compatible, etc., even though the different processors might actually be designed very differently at the microcode level. And certainly at the circuit le

National/Econamic Security

[nzkbuk]

If it's good enough for USA to consider their economy part of their national security to implement trade sanctions why can't the rest of the world do it ?

Zero standing

[non-e-moose]

In legalese, the UK has ZERO, repeat ZERO standing, as this is a Japanese company. If the UK wanted to object/scrutiinize, it should have been done with regard as to the sale fo ARM to a Japanese company. Now? [Idiot] Politicians want $$$ without any valid legal basis. Do I believe this is monopolistic? YES. It needs to be solved in the acquiring jurisdiction, not in that of which intentionally decided to abandon said tech company.

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[Aighearach]

Details are important, don't be a dumbfuck who just says, "Golly, I heard it was bought by a Japanese company, therefore I can pull a bunch of implications out of my ass!"

When if when the Japanese company bought it, they agreed to a bunch of restrictions? What if they were buying stock, but the company was actually still incorporated in the UK? There are a whole bunch of implications that you wouldn't be able to pull out of your ass, you'd have to look them up and find out.

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[sabbede]

Has Nvidia agreed to those restrictions? Isn't buying ownership shares (stock) the same as buying a company? Is Nvidia planning to move operations out of the UK?

And is it unreasonable to question why there would be a national security issue with an American company buying a British company at all, let alone one that was already sold to a Japanese firm without such great consternation? Especially given how deeply interconnected the US and UK are when it comes to national security.

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[Aighearach]

Nobody asks Nvidia if they want to agree.

What matters is what did ARM and SoftBank agree to in the past, and what rules already existed that might continue to govern future transactions.

This blathering about "sold to a Japanese firm" is getting old, and it gets stupider and stupider each time it is repeated without reading the past response. What did they buy? Shares of a UK company that was then still a UK company? Then it is a UK company! What the national security implications are, are up to the UK. Buyi