Arm Holdings to Face US Antitrust Probe Over Chip Tech

Arm Holdings Plc is facing an antitrust investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission over the UK company’s licensing of its semiconductor technology, part of ongoing global scrutiny of the business, people familiar with the matter said.

The US competition and consumer protection regulator is probing whether Arm is trying to illegally monopolize parts of the semiconductor market, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential probe. The FTC is looking to determine if Arm will refuse or lower the quality of licenses for blueprints to develop central processing units — the brain of a computer — while ramping up efforts to develop its own chips, said the people.