NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Halt NVIDIA’s Acquisition of Arm Limited

NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) report the termination of the previously announced transaction in which NVIDIA would buy Arm Limited (Arm) from SBG. The parties agreed to stop the Agreement due to notable regulatory obstacles preventing the progression of the transaction, despite good faith efforts by the parties, the companies report. Arm plans to now pursue a public offering.  

“Arm has a bright future, and we’ll continue to support them as a proud licensee for decades to come,” says Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive officer of NVIDIA, in a press release posted on NVIDIA's site. “Though we won’t be one company, we will partner closely with Arm. The significant investments that Masa has made have positioned Arm to expand the reach of the Arm CPU beyond client computing to supercomputing, cloud, AI and robotics. I expect Arm to be the most important CPU architecture of the next decade.”

SBG also reports that, through cooperation with Arm, it will begin making movement toward a public offering of Arm within the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. SBG states that Arm’s technology and intellectual property will be central to the future of mobile computing and artificial intelligence.

“Arm is becoming a center of innovation not only in the mobile phone revolution, but also in cloud computing, automotive, the Internet of Things and the metaverse, and has entered its second growth phase,” says Masayoshi Son, representative director, corporate officer, chairman & chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp.

NVIDIA and SBG had first reported that they had entered into a definitive agreement, under which NVIDIA would buy Arm from SoftBank, on September 13, 2020. In following the terms of the agreement, SBG will retain the $1.25 billion prepaid by NVIDIA, which will be recorded as profit in the fourth quarter, and NVIDIA will retain its 20-year Arm license.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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