The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday it is suing NVIDIA to block its planned $40 billion deal for Arm, alleging that it would hamper innovation in areas such as cloud data centers and self-driving cars.
FTC表示,反对这笔交易,因为它会give a single company control over the technology that many of the world’s top chip designers, including NVIDIA rivals, rely on to develop competing products. The deal would also give NVIDIA the ability to cut off access to Arm’s designs to rivals, and could hamper future innovation at the heart of huge cloud data centers and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in cars.
“The FTC is suing to block the largest semiconductor chip merger in history to prevent a chip conglomerate from stifling the innovation pipeline for next-generation technologies,” said Holly Vedova, who leads the FTC's bureau of competition,在声明中.
她说：“这项拟议的交易将扭曲ARM在芯片市场中的激励措施，并使合并后的公司不公平地破坏Nvidia的竞争对手。”如果FTC在法庭上获胜，NVIDIA将被阻止接管。
The lawsuit "should send a strong signal that we will act aggressively to protect our critical infrastructure markets from illegal vertical mergers that have far-reaching and damaging effects on future innovations."
NVIDIA宣布，此时已同意购买ARM。但是，行业分析师警告说，在监管机构，竞争对手和大型ARM客户的强烈反对之中，这笔交易可能会瓦解。
NVIDIA此前曾表示，这笔交易定于2022年初完成。但是诉讼可能会增加几个月的延误，而监管程序则继续进行。
The "Switzerland" of Semiconductors
ARM建立了中央处理单元（CPU）和其他公司将大多数全球智能手机生态系统供电的芯片组装的其他知识产权。该公司将其CPU内核的核心蓝图和基础指令套装架构（ISA）许可给苹果，高通，三星电子等芯片制造商。ARM约有6,000名员工，于2016年被出售给软银。
Arm CPU cores are also playing a deeper role in data centers with server processors and networking chips.
NVIDIA是图形处理单元（GPU）的主要参与者，用于在数据中心进行深入学习并在PC上创建虚拟游戏世界。但是它的许多芯片也取决于手臂设计的核心。
ARM通常被称为半导体部门的“瑞士”，因为它将其蓝图许可给数百家公司，同时直接与他们竞争，但仍然是中立的球员。实际上，世界上每个主要的半导体公司都使用，包括高通and evenInteland AMD, which battle for market share with NVIDIA.
While U.S. chip giant Broadcom have come out in support of the deal, others oppose it. Qualcomm has taken issue with the deal over concerns that NVIDIA would get a sneak peek at Arm's intellectual property. Critics also fret that NVIDIA could choke off the supply of Arm's technology to competitors or raise prices for the designs they rely on.
The FTC warned that if the proposed deal closed it could give NVIDIA lopsided access to Arm’s technology, hurting competition by giving it an unfair advantage over key rivals. That ultimately would reduce product quality, innovation, and choice while prices go up for Arm's customers base, the FTC alleged in its lawsuit.
"Critical Loss of Trust"
由于大多数半导体公司都使用ARM的CPU核心开发芯片，因此他们还依靠ARM定期升级核心并为子孙后代添加功能。ARM还提供相关的支持和服务。结果，其客户通常会与ARM共享专有和潜在的“敏感”信息，以帮助开发，测试，调试和故障排除新的芯片设计。
该机构说，从理论上讲，这笔交易将使NVIDIA可以访问它可以用来损害竞争对手的信息，例如取消强调甚至停止对竞争对手重要的功能的发展。
FTC表示，这将损害NVIDIA与基于ARM的芯片竞争的三个市场的竞争：汽车中的自动驾驶系统，数据处理单元（DPU）和云数据中心的ARM CPU。该机构表示，这可能会减少ARM寻求可能与Nvidia业务冲突的创新的激励措施。
“Arm licensees share their competitively sensitive information with Arm because Arm is a neutral partner, not a rival chipmaker," the agency alleged in the lawsuit, which names NVIDIA, Arm, and Japan's Softbank.
投诉说：“此次收购可能会导致对ARM及其生态系统的信任严重丧失。”
Regulatory Issues Ahead
NVIDIA是美国最大的半导体公司，按市场价值计算，他表示担心是没有根据的。
The Santa Clara, California-based company has said that it plans to invest further in Arm’s research and development, and it wants to keep Arm independent and preserve its open licensing model, which makes sure its designs are available to any company willing to pay for them, now and into the future. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has also pledged to protect the confidentiality of any information it collects from companies.
But the deal has encountered a growing amount of regulatory resistance around the world. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, said in October it has launched its own深入调查into the deal. The $40 billion deal also needs to get the green light from China.
上个月，英国政府宣布，它希望对NVIDIA对竞争和国家安全问题的问题进行全面调查。ARM总部位于剑桥。
The FTC said that it has cooperated closely with the staff at competition agencies in the European Union, the U.K., Japan, and South Korea. The agency, which includes two Republicans and two Democrats, said that it voted unanimously to launch the suit.
The administrative trial is scheduled to start in August 2022, according to the FTC.
