Nvidia Corp has submitted an application to Chinese competition regulators to review a $40 billion takeover of UK chip designer Arm, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. In the recent week only, the applications were made.
According to Chinese antitrust lawyers, this has set in motion a period of scrutiny that could take up to 18 months. Last month Nvidia said that it expects to close the Arm acquisition. And this is by March 2022. And this is only after having struck a deal with SoftBank Group in September 2020. Bloomberg news reported that the Japanese conglomerate, is in talks with banks for a loan of about $7.5 billion tied to the Arm sale. The source is from the Mizuho Bank Ltd coordinating the deal.
Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission had opened an in-depth probe into Nvidia’s agreement to buy Arm. This took place in February. The U.S. chip company had started the process of engaging with Chinese regulators. And also, they were confident that the deal would be cleared within the time frame set by Nvidia. This was stated by the Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang to the Financial Times last month.
