Nvidia offers EU concessions over $54 billion Arm deal

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Nvidia has offered concessions in a bid to secure EU antitrust approval for its $54 billion acquisition of British chip designer Arm, a European Commission filing showed on Wednesday.

The deal announced by world’s biggest maker of graphics and AI chips last year has sparked concerns in the semiconductor industry over whether Arm could remain a neutral player licensing intellectual property to customers and rivals.

The EU competition enforcer, which did not provide details of the concessions in line with its policy, set an Oct. 27 deadline for its decision.

It will now seek feedback from rivals and customers before deciding whether to accept the concessions, demand more or open a four-month long investigation.

Nvidia has said it would maintain Arm as a neutral technology supplier as it aims to allay concerns from customers such as Qualcomm Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc.

Arm customers Broadcom, MediaTek and Marvell are supporters of the deal.

Arm, owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, is a major player in global semiconductors. Its designs power nearly every smartphone and millions of other devices.

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