Synopsis
The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating Arm Holdings. The probe focuses on Arm's licensing of its chip technology. Regulators want to know if Arm is illegally monopolizing parts of the semiconductor market. This scrutiny is part of global attention on Arm's business practices. Arm faces similar investigations in other countries. A dispute with Qualcomm is also ongoing.Listen to this article in summarized format
The FTC is investigating whether Arm is trying to illegally monopolize parts of the semiconductor market, the report said. It is looking to assess whether Arm will reject or downgrade the licensing agreements for its chip blueprints used to design central processing units, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The US regulator notified Arm of the investigation this year and demanded the company preserve documents, according to Bloomberg.
Arm declined to comment on any possible investigation. The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Qualcomm and Arm are in a dispute over whether Qualcomm breached a contract with Arm after it bought 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 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A big portion of Arm's revenue comes from licensing its technology to companies such as Nvidia and Apple and collecting royalty payments on design use.
Regulators outside the US are also probing Arm's practices.
South Korea's antitrust regulator was investigating the Seoul offices of Arm 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, but Reuters could not verify that claim.
