South Korea’s Antitrust Watchdog Raids Arm’s Seoul HQ in High-Stakes Licensing Investigation

Regulatory storm clouds gather over semiconductor giant Arm as South Korea's antitrust authority executes surprise inspection.

THE RAID

Korean Fair Trade Commission investigators descended on Arm's Seoul offices this morning - seizing documents and questioning executives in a dramatic escalation of the ongoing licensing practices probe. The move signals regulators aren't bluffing about cleaning up what they call 'anti-competitive behavior' in the chip design space.

GLOBAL DOMINO EFFECT

This isn't just about Korea. Arm's architecture powers everything from smartphones to servers worldwide. When regulators start poking around licensing agreements that affect 95% of mobile processors, the entire tech food chain holds its breath. Manufacturing partners, chip designers, and device makers all watching nervously.

LICENSING CRACKDOWN

South Korea's playing hardball - and they've got the teeth to back it up. The KFTC can impose fines up to 10% of annual revenue for violations. For a company like Arm, that's serious pocket change even by Silicon Valley standards.

MARKET JITTERS

Investors hate uncertainty more than they love profits. When regulators start turning over rocks, the cockroaches of corporate misconduct always scatter. Another reminder that in tech, your moat can become your prison faster than you can say 'antitrust investigation.' Because nothing says 'innovation' like government agents carting away your filing cabinets.

KFTC expands inquiry after Qualcomm raises global complaints

Qualcomm’s complaint stretches beyond South Korea. Before the visit in Seoul, the company had already raised concerns with regulators in the United States and Europe, saying Arm had changed the rules of the game.

Qualcomm claims Arm built an entire industry by letting many companies license its designs freely, but then began limiting access after more than 20 years of running an open network.

Qualcomm says this shift threatens competition, especially as computing demand grows for everything from desktops to AI hardware.

Arm has pushed back. The company, which is based in the United Kingdom and majority‑owned by SoftBank Group Corp., said Qualcomm is using global regulators to “expand the parties’ ongoing commercial dispute for its own competitive benefit.” The two companies are already fighting each other in courts around the world.

Arm sued Qualcomm over claims the chipmaker violated a licensing agreement. Qualcomm won the case late last year, and in September, a federal judge ruled in Qualcomm’s favor on the remaining claims. Arm is appealing the ruling.

Court filings from Qualcomm last year show the company believes Arm’s behavior changed after SoftBank acquired it and failed to sell it to Nvidia Corp. Qualcomm said Arm began acting “anticompetitively to pad its bottom line,” cutting access to designs that chipmakers and device makers depend on.

Arm does not manufacture chips. Its business runs on licensing chip designs and its instruction set, which is the essential code that lets software communicate with processors.

Legal tension grows as South Korea pushes financial measures

Regulators in South Korea have broad powers under the country’s antimonopoly law, including the authority to conduct in‑person inspections, gather documents, and interview staff.

While these inspections are common, using them on Arm signals that the KFTC is raising the level of scrutiny.

The visit comes as both Arm and Qualcomm try to position themselves for rising demand in computing, especially in AI systems, while the market for smartphone chips slows down.

Away from the chip fight, South Korea’s government is taking steps on financial policy. Koo Yun‑cheol, the country’s finance minister, said Wednesday that Seoul is preparing new incentives for long‑term stock investors.

Koo said, “We plan to introduce incentive measures for small investors, who stay in capital markets for a long time or invest in certain stocks in the long term.” He also said the government is working to stabilize the foreign exchange market by talking directly with market participants to reduce volatility.

Koo added that he met with major exporters who are holding U.S. dollars overseas instead of bringing them back into the country. He noted that he has not yet met with the national pension fund, even though its demand for overseas investment continues to grow.

Koo also pointed to a major U.S. trade agreement, saying, “The government is spending taxpayers’ money for U.S. investments, in return for lower tariffs, which benefit companies. Companies should be aware of these efforts being made by the government and taxpayers.”

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