SoftBank Group selling Arm to NVIDIA for up to $40bn

TOKYO: Japan's SoftBank Group said Monday it is selling British chip designer Arm to US firm NVIDIA for up to $40 billion, potentially creating a new giant in the industry but sparking an investigation by UK regulators and fears about the impact on jobs.

If approved, the deal will be one of the largest acquisitions anywhere in the world this year and propel NVIDIA to the forefront of the semiconductor sector.

The announcement also renewed speculation about SoftBank Group's future, with Bloomberg News reporting it is set to revive talks about going private via a management buyout plan.

The Arm sale is valued at up to $40 billion and is subject to approval by authorities in several jurisdictions, including Britain, China, the United States and the European Union, SoftBank Group said in a statement.

It hopes the deal will be completed by around March 2022, it added.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman confirmed UK regulators were looking into the deal, and its implications for Arm's headquarters in the university city of Cambridge, eastern England.

The company's co-founder, Hermann Hauser, meanwhile wrote to Johnson voicing fears about jobs and Britain becoming "collateral damage" in the US trade war with China.

"Arm powers the smartphones of Apple, Samsung, Sony, Huawei and practically every other brand in the world and therefore can exert influence on all of them," he said.

"Surrendering UK's most powerful trade weapon to the US is making Britain a US vassal state."