www.design-reuse-embedded.com
Find Top SoC Solutions
for AI, Automotive, IoT, Security, Audio & Video...

Nvidia Must Now Convince Multiple Stakeholders to Close Arm Purchase

eetimes.eu, Sept. 14, 2020 – 

Over the last few weeks, several people in Europe had mentioned to me that discussions between Nvidia, Softbank and Arm were well advanced. It was difficult to report on since most people close to the deal kept it very close, so there were very few factoids I could use. So instead I wrote a piece on why the acquisition of Arm by Nvidia made sense, based on both companies' ambitions to rule the data center.

Hence when the news finally came this week that Nvidia plans to buy Arm for $40 billion, it wasn't much of a surprise. In Monday's media and analyst call, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, and Simon Segars, CEO of Arm, set out to tell the story that they will no doubt have to tell over the next 12-18 months as they look to clear all the regulatory approvals as well as ensure they can win the industry over.

On the call, Huang said, "This transaction is very important for the technology sector and the U.K. Together we're going to create the world's premier computing company for the age of AI [artificial intelligence]." He added, "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the two companies to create the most energy-efficient computing capability in the world. That's the reason I was the highest bidder."

Nvidia and Arm will have to work hard on government relations as well as the industry, if they are to overcome some strong lobbying by two of the people who were instrumental in founding Arm, Hermann Hauser and Tudor Brown. They have been in the media regularly in recent weeks because of their concern such a deal would mean the U.K. losing its crown jewel of the technology industry, and that it would be moved to the U.S. This is a common scenario for European companies acquired by U.S. firms, who often end up having a key part of the company relocated stateside, apart from some key engineering or research and development jobs which may stay in the original European location.

As the deal was announced, Hauser told news agency Reuters that this would spell disaster for Cambridge, the UK, and Europe. He said, "It's the last European technology company with global relevance and it's being sold to the Americans." If this deal did happen, he said it would risk jeopardizing Arm's position as the "Switzerland of the semiconductor industry" where it allows hundreds of companies such as Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm to develop their own chips using its architecture.

He added that if the company's British character and open business model could not be protected, it would be better for the Prime Minister Boris Johnson to back a flotation on the London Stock Exchange.

Click here to read more...

 Back

Partner with us

List your Products

Suppliers, list and add your products for free.

More about D&R Privacy Policy

© 2024 Design And Reuse

All Rights Reserved.

No portion of this site may be copied, retransmitted, reposted, duplicated or otherwise used without the express written permission of Design And Reuse.