Nvidia has asked Chinese regulators to approve its US$40 billion takeover of UK chip designer Arm and says it is confident the deal will receive approval and close in early 2022.

When the deal was announced last September, Nvidia and Arm said it would take approximately 18 months to go through the process, but the Chinese approval process could take another 18 months. Regulators in the UK, Europe and the US are also probing the deal.

Arm has as a joint venture called Arm China with Chinese private equity firm Hopu Investments, headquartered in Shanghai.