Aug 3 - The UK government is considering blocking chip designer Nvidia Corp's $400 billion acquisition of British peer Arm Ltd on potential national security risks, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday citing people familiar with the matter.
Nvidia said it was working with the UK government through the regulatory process with the regulators.
An Nvidia spokesperson contacted Reuters and said they look forward to their questions and will resolve any issues they may have.
Arm, currently owned by Japan's SoftBank Corp. is a major player in global semiconductors, a sector fundamental to technologies from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to 5 G telecoms networks. Its designs power almost every mobile and millions of other devices.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority had sent its final Phase 1 investigation report on July 20 to the UK Government, according to the government website.
The report filed contained worrying implications for UK National Security, the Bloomberg report says, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The regulator declined further comment on Tuesday.
The U.K. government is likely to conduct a deeper review of the merger due to national security concerns, the report added.
In April, the UK government announced it was invoking national security to investigate the deal and that CMA will assess competition, jurisdiction and national security impact of the deal.