The U.K. government has issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN) on Nvidia’s proposed $40 billion takeover of chip designer Arm on national security grounds.
The notice was issued by Britain’s Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden on Monday.
It’s not clear what the national security grounds are but the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said Dowden “considered advice received from officials across the investment security community.”
The Competition and Markets Authority has been instructed to compile a report for Dowden on the competition and national security aspects of the deal before July 30.
“Following careful consideration of the proposed takeover of Arm, I have today issued an intervention notice on national security grounds,” said Dowden in a statement. “As a next step and to help me gather the relevant information, the U.K.’s independent competition authority will now prepare a report on the implications of the transaction, which will help inform any further decisions.”
He added: “We want to support our thriving UK tech industry and welcome foreign investment, but it is appropriate that we properly consider the national security implications of a transaction like this.”
A spokesperson for Nvidia said: “We do not believe that this transaction poses any material national security issues. We will continue to work closely with the British authorities, as we have done since the announcement of this deal.”
Arm, which is currently owned by SoftBank, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
