Graphics card giant Nvidia is apparently planning to abandon its attempt to acquire chip company Arm.
That's according to Bloomberg, which reports that the company has told some of its partners that it does not anticipate the acquisition will actually take place, though notes that a final decision is yet to be made.
Apparently, Arm's current owner, Japanese financial giant Softbank of WeWork and Uber fame, is looking into taking the chip firm public in the eventuality that the acquisition falls through. Previously, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said that his company would be interested in investing in Arm were Softbank to take the firm public.
Publicly, at least, Softbank is still hoping to sell Arm to Nvidia.
“We remain hopeful that the transaction will be approved,” a Softbank rep said.
Nvidia announced in September 2020 that it intended to buy Arm for $40 billion. This deal has, perhaps unsurprisingly, triggered competition investigations around the world. The UK launched a six-month investigation into the deal back in November, while the FTC has sued to stop Nvidia's acquisition of Arm.
Back in April 2021, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that he was "very confident" that the deal would be approved.