(Reuters) -China is holding up Softbank Group Corp -owned Arm’s plan to offload its troubled joint venture in the country, Financial Times reported on Thursday.
Chinese officials have declined to process the paperwork confirming Arm China’s transfer to a new Vision Fund entity since the documents were submitted to business regulators around May last year, FT said, citing three people close to the matter.
However, it is possible that regulators would change their minds and process the paperwork, which takes around five to 10 days to complete, the report said.
Arm and Softbank did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The report comes after the United States passed a sweeping set of regulations last year aimed at kneecapping China’s semiconductor industry.
China does not want to lose Arm at this juncture, FT reported, quoting an official involved in overseeing Arm China.
“The chip war between the U.S. and China continues to escalate and Arm is a must-have ally for China’s chip industry,” the official told FT.
(Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
