The Guardian view on Brexit’s foreign takeover: losing control of tech | Editorial

If the US is free to close its market to Huawei, then why can't Britain act in the national interest over Arm?

Brexit was supposed to be about taking back control, re-asserting Britain's authority over what goes on within its borders and breaking free from outside meddling in our affairs. But if the proposed 30bn acquisition of Arm Holdings, a global leader in processor design, by California's Nvidia is waved through by Boris Johnson, then, far from reclaiming sovereignty, Britain would be forgoing it. Arm may be owned by Japan's SoftBank but its headquarters are in Cambridge and its intellectual property is overwhelmingly British. That means Arm is not subject to US export laws. But it would be if Silicon Fen's biggest company ended up in American hands.

Competition over control of key technologies has seen states, and the EU, internationalise their standards and try to impose their regulations on other countries. The US is at the forefront of such practices. Monday was the last day that US-origin technology shipments could leave ports destined for use by Huawei, because in Washington's eyes the company's links to the Chinese government make its telecoms equipment a security threat. Arm's designs power more than 95% of smartphones. What if the White House decided Arm could no longer supply Chinese companies or European - or even UK - ones?