Tesla CEO Elon Musk has signaled competition concerns over Nvidia’s planned purchase of British chip designer Arm, the Telegraph reported, citing multiple sources.
Nvidia, the world’s biggest maker of graphics and AI chips, announced $54 billion purchase of Arm last year, sparking a backlash in the semiconductor industry.
Arm has long been a neutral player licensing key intellectual property to customers who are otherwise intense rivals, including Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics and Apple. Tesla’s self-driving chip uses Arm processors.
E-commerce giant Amazon and smartphone maker Samsung Electronics have also lodged opposition to the deal with U.S. authorities, the Telegraph reported on Saturday.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission opened an in-depth probe into the takeover. The probe findings are expected in the coming weeks, according to the newspaper.
Tesla, Amazon, Samsung and Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Nvidia is likely to seek European Union antitrust approval for the purchase of Arm early next month, with regulators expected to launch a full-scale investigation after a preliminary review, people familiar with the matter have said.
Arm, currently owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group is a major player in global semiconductors, a sector fundamental to technologies from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to 5G telecoms networks. Its designs power nearly every smartphone and millions of other devices.
