(Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd cannot buy some of the most advanced chip designs after British chip technology firm Arm Ltd determined that U.S. and Britain would not approve licences to export technology to China, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

This is the first known time that Arm, owned by Japanese tech investor SoftBank, has decided it could not export its most cutting-edge designs to China, the newspaper added.

(Reporting by Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)