The planned takeover of the British chip manufacturer ARM by the American Nvidia group for 40 billion dollars (a good 33 billion euros) is currently being examined by the London government and could still be stopped.

According to the British media, the report by the British competition authority CMA is said to contain significant concerns that the change of ownership could undermine national security interests.

The CMA does not weigh up the security issue itself, but passes on assessments from other authorities, such as secret services.

Philip Plickert

Business correspondent based in London.

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Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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Culture and Digital Minister Oliver Dowden now has to decide whether to approve or prohibit the takeover.

He can also order an even more in-depth investigation.

The Cambridge-based semiconductor manufacturer ARM, once founded in 1990 as a joint venture between Acorn and Apple, is one of the UK's most important technology success stories.

The company has profited from the mobile phone boom and its technology is in almost all smartphones.

But it is also an important supplier for industry and also armaments.

The previous owner of ARM is the Japanese Softbank, which bought the microchip manufacturer in 2016 for 33 billion dollars.

Nvidia's takeover plans, announced last September, are met with reservations from trade unionists and the Labor opposition, who are worried about jobs, as well as conservatives such as the chairman of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, who is concerned about technological sovereignty of the Kingdom. It is of course unclear to what extent the change from a Japanese to an American owner will endanger national security.

Nvidia and ARM had been prepared for critical regulators from the start and announced that the transaction would be completed in March 2022, i.e. after 18 months. Outside of the UK, competition authorities in the United States, EU and China are also looking into the deal, and rigorous scrutiny is expected everywhere. For Nvidia, ARM would be by far the most expensive acquisition in its history. The acquisition would help the Americans to put their business on a much broader basis. Traditionally they are primarily known for graphics cards for displaying video games, but their semiconductors have found more and more areas of application, for example in cloud computing or for autonomous driving.