Nvidia has encountered another hurdle in its pursuit to acquire semiconductor design company ARM. The Federal Trade Commission is now suing Nvidia over the potential merger, following complaints by Microsoft, Google, Qualcomm, and more after it was announced in September last year.

The FTC claims that Nvidia is set to gain an unfair competitive advantage by taking ownership of ARM, given that the open-source designs are used by many of its competitors. The FTC is worried about how Nvidia might steer the future of ARM for its own purposes, as well as use inside information on how its competitors are using the designs to give the company a competitive edge in future semiconductor designs.

"Tomorrow’s technologies depend on preserving today’s competitive, cutting-edge chip markets," stated FTC Bureau of Competition director Holly Vedova, via The Verge. "This proposed deal would distort Arm’s incentives in chip markets and allow the combined firm to unfairly undermine Nvidia’s rivals. The FTC’s lawsuit should send a strong signal that we will act aggressively to protect our critical infrastructure markets from illegal vertical mergers that have far-reaching and damaging effects on future innovations."