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An opinion piece published Wednesday in the Chinese state-backed Global Times said that US chipmaker Nvidia Corp’s planned takeover of Arm Ltd from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp was “disturbing,” urging global regulators. to take action to stop it.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the technology company Nvidia is seen at its headquarters in Santa Clara, California on February 11, 2015. REUTERS / Robert Galbraith
SHANGHAI: An opinion piece published in the Global Times on Wednesday, backed by the Chinese state, said that the planned acquisition of Arm Ltd by US chipmaker Nvidia Corp from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp was “disturbing”, urging global regulators to exercise caution while evaluating approval.
“Given the tensions between the US and China and the US crackdown on a number of Chinese tech companies, if Arm falls into the hands of the US, Chinese tech companies would certainly be at a great disadvantage in the market.” said the op-ed, author of which was not named.
SoftBank said on Monday it had agreed to sell British chip designer Arm to Nvidia for up to $ 40 billion in a deal aimed at reshaping the global semiconductor landscape.
The Global Times op-ed said that Chinese companies included in the US “entity list” run the risk of being excluded from using Arm-based chips, while European companies using Arm could also have difficulties in supplying China.
In May 2019, the US Department of Commerce placed Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on a list of companies that US companies are prohibited from supplying and providing services.
Before Nvidia can take full control of Arm, antitrust regulators in major markets must signal approval of the transaction.
In 2018, US chipmaker Qualcomm Inc reversed its planned acquisition of NXP Semiconductor NV from the Netherlands after Chinese regulators refused to approve it.
(This story changes the wording of the title to “caution” from “intervention”, and first to “be careful” to “stop”)
(Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
