Nvidia’s plans to acquire chip designer Arm from Softbank are officially off the table. The news was confirmed by both companies via press release on Tuesday.
Nvidia previously agreed to purchase Arm for $40 billion in cash and stocks back in late 2020. The news caused Nvidia’s stocks to soar, bringing the cost up closer to $66 billion, according to multiple reports. However, the deal eventually couldn’t go through “because of significant regulatory challenges,” according to Softbank, who will get to keep the $1.25 billion deposit from the initial agreement. The objections of regulators due to concerns about the effect of the acquisitions on the competition reportedly also played a significant role.
Arm is best known for its ARM processors (CPUs) used in smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. The company also works on software development tools, computing platforms, and SoC infrastructure.
Softbank’s next step will be the public offering of Arm. According to the company, the IPO will take place “within the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.” In the meantime, the top of Arm will go through reshuffling with the company’s CEO Simon Segars leaving his post. Seagars will be replaced by Rene Haas, who previously served as Arm’s IP group president.
Haas is expected to continue the efforts of establishing Arm as a major player in the fields of CPU, GPU, and Artificial Intelligence.
“Continuing what we’ve been doing and executing on that is going to be really important because we’ve demonstrated a recipe on how to grow the business and we definitely want to continue that,” Haas told Tech Crunch after the news was made public.
