NVIDIA's ARM acquisition delay sparks IPO rumors

Time's up.

What you need to know

• NVIDIA's ARM acquisition faces a long road to being a done deal.
• Regulators are one obstacle preventing the deal from completing.
• Brussels' competition regulators' summer vacation is about to stall the process even further.

Back in June 2021, the word on the street was that NVIDIA hadn't produced the key paperwork necessary for its acquisition of ARM to be cleared by EU regulators. The fear then was that if NVIDIA didn't act fast, summer vacation would creep up, and the company would have to wait until September to get the ball rolling. And now, it looks like that fear is going to become a reality.

The Telegraph reports that NVIDIA still hasn't submitted the necessary papers even as Brussels' competition regulators enter summer vacation mode. Therefore, with the European Commission not having the necessary papers, it appears developments will be scarce until work resumes in September, at which point the process could still take more than six months to wrap up.

The Telegraph's report says that parties close to the matter claim a stock market float is still on the table, should the NVIDIA-ARM deal continue to be stalled and faced by overwhelming logistical hurdles. ARM's CEO Simon Segars has denied that initial public offering (IPO) planning is in the works.

There's no guarantee that the EU will be fine with the deal, either. Between European and Chinese regulators, as well as those in the United States, there are multiple nations and regulatory bodies that could potentially stand in the way of NVIDIA and ARM sealing the deal with each other. For that reason, the acquisition's ultimate trajectory remains unclear.

This is a (slowly) developing story and will be updated when September rolls around. Possibly.