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According to people familiar with the matter, Nvidia has submitted an application to the Chinese competition regulator to review the US$40 billion acquisition of British chip design company Arm, about 8 months before the deal was announced.
According to people familiar with the matter, the application was filed in recent weeks. According to Chinese antitrust lawyers, the application initiated a review period that may take one to 18 months.
This will exceed the 18-month timetable set by Nvidia when it was announced Last September deal.
China is a huge market for Arm, and Arm licenses its energy-saving chip designs through local joint ventures.Its sales in China (two persons familiar with the joint venture valued at approximately US$500 million in 2019) enable Chinese regulators to Right to review acquisition.
Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun said in an interview with the Financial Times last month that the US chip company has “started” the process of contacting Chinese regulators. He said that he believes the transaction will be completed within the time frame set by Nvidia.
He mentioned Nvidia’s acquisition of an Israeli company Melanox, Which was announced in 2019, where the approval of the Chinese regulatory agency is the last step in the 13-month process. “China usually ranks behind all other regulatory agencies… This is consistent with my last experience,” he said.
Nvidia added that “the regulatory process is confidential and we cannot comment on its progress”.
Several people familiar with the thinking of China’s antitrust regulators said that Chinese chip manufacturers, such as Huawei’s HiSilicon and Semiconductor Manufacturing International, and state-backed chip investment group E-Town Capital OpposeMake a deal.
Their concerns stem from Fear of surrendering greater control Provided the design to support most of China’s chip industry for NVIDIA in the United States.
However, Huang said that the alliance between Arm and Nvidia “will only bring more innovation to the market” and he still believes that the trade will be completed.
Arms are fighting Long battle After it and its partners failed to remove Alan Wu, the head of its joint venture, in order to control its China business.
Wu still controls the business legally, and his withdrawal negotiations have yet to produce results.
Wu File a lawsuit According to several people familiar with the matter, the joint venture was registered in Shenzhen last summer against Arm China in the southern city of Shenzhen and has received support from some members of the local government.
The lawsuit was filed by two Arm China shareholders controlled by Wu, accusing the board of directors of invalidating his decision to remove him. Wu was allowed to represent both Arm China and two shareholders in this case, making him both the plaintiff and the defendant.
“He is basically suing himself,” a person familiar with the matter said. “One of his law firms can argue that the decision to remove him is invalid, and another law firm can agree.”
The Shenzhen court has not yet held a formal hearing on the case. Those close to the Arm China board hope that the judge will eventually appoint its representative as the defendant, but they have not succeeded so far.
Wu and Arm China did not respond to requests for comment.
Liu Qianer Shenzhen Supplementary Report
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