September 14, 2020 9:01 PM
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, which has to give the go-ahead for the deal alongside other regulators globally, did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, Arm’s ownership by an American company also raises the possibility that Washington could place restrictions on its business in China, industry experts said.
Beijing helped close a 204 billion yuan fund last year to finance semiconductor companies, after raising a nearly 140 billion yuan fund in 2014.A key supplier to Apple, Arm does not make chips but licenses an instruction set architecture — the most fundamental intellectual property underpinning computing chips.
They are used too by more specialised firms such as Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co Ltd, which makes chips for the internet of things, and Horizon Robotics, a Beijing-based startup maker of automotive chips valued at US$3 billion in early 2019. The two companies did not respond to a request for comment.