WASHINGTON, May 18 — Arm Holdings is facing an antitrust investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the British chip designer’s licensing of its semiconductor technology, Bloomberg News reported, marking part of a broader global scrutiny of the business.
The FTC is investigating whether Arm is attempting to illegally monopolise parts of the semiconductor market. It is assessing whether the company may reject or downgrade licensing agreements for its chip blueprints used to design central processing units, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter.
The US regulator notified Arm of the investigation earlier this year and has requested that the company preserve documents, Bloomberg reported.
Arm declined to comment on any possible investigation, while the FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Qualcomm and Arm are currently in a dispute over whether Qualcomm breached a contract with Arm following its acquisition of chip startup Nuvia.
Arm said in a statement: “Qualcomm’s baseless allegation of anticompetitive conduct is nothing more than a desperate and underhanded attempt to obtain leverage in the parties’ ongoing commercial dispute for its own competitive benefit.”
Qualcomm also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A significant portion of Arm’s revenue comes from licensing its technology to companies such as Nvidia and Apple, as well as collecting royalty payments on design use.
Regulators outside the US are also probing Arm’s practices.
South Korea’s antitrust regulator investigated Arm’s Seoul offices in November as part of ongoing scrutiny of the company’s licensing practices.
Bloomberg reported that the South Korean investigation stemmed from a complaint from Qualcomm, although Reuters said it could not independently verify that claim.
