The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reportedly opened an antitrust probe into British chip design company Arm.
On the 16th (local time), Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that the FTC is looking into Arm's alleged illegal monopoly. Specifically, the probe is examining whether Arm sought to dominate the market by refusing to provide central processing unit (CPU) design licenses or by intentionally degrading quality. The FTC notified Arm at the start of this year that it was opening an investigation and ordered the preservation of related documents.
Arm, whose major shareholder is Japan's SoftBank Group, has run a business selling chip design blueprints and instruction set licenses, and global big tech manufacturers including Apple and Qualcomm have relied on them entirely.
But after Arm in Mar. rolled out its self-developed artificial intelligence (AI) chip "AGI CPU" and entered direct chip sales, the battle lines formed. Arm set a goal of generating $15 billion (about 21.8 trillion won) in annual sales in this field within the next five years. Some in the industry view this not merely as business expansion, but as a move to vertically integrate the entire CPU supply chain to target the exploding demand for AI infrastructure.
In particular, longtime license partner Qualcomm is strongly pushing back, saying Arm's move is intended to restrict access to its technology. The conflict between the two companies has the hallmarks of an all-out war to seize leadership in next-generation computing resources such as PCs and AI infrastructure, amid stagnating growth in the smartphone chip market.
Antitrust scrutiny of Arm appears to be spreading across global markets. Earlier, in 2024, Qualcomm filed a complaint with the European Commission of the European Union (EU), claiming Arm is restricting license access and refusing to provide core technology. The Korea Fair Trade Commission also launched an on-site investigation into Arm's Seoul office in Nov. last year based on Qualcomm's report.
While avoiding specific comment on the current FTC probe, Arm strongly criticized it, saying, "Qualcomm's claims of anti-competitive conduct are baseless," and calling it "a desperate and underhanded attempt to gain advantage in a commercial dispute."
Meanwhile, Arm's share price, buoyed by the AI momentum, has surged 82.3% from the start of the year, far outpacing the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index's gain of 63%.