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Nvidia CPU's? Nvidia is looking at a takeover bid for ARM

4K8KW10 said:
You are wrong. How do you know that Nvidia has no interest?
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How do you know that they are interested in making chips for HDD controllers, TVs and other devices where the chips sell for a few pounds?
They aren't only used in premium devices where there are large margins.
Nvidia are very unlikely to chase pence when they have payed tens of billions.
They are too small to move into all those new markets.
 
4K8KW10 said:
Charlie agrees that Nvidia will kill ARM if it takes it over.

Nvidia will be the end of ARM
https://semiaccurate.com/2020/09/13/nvidia-will-be-the-end-of-arm/

"So the Nvidia purchase of ARM is now officially announced and if it completes, SemiAccurate thinks ARM is dead. If it doesn’t happen, ARM is likely in deep trouble for all the same reasons."
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I actually think the risk for Nvidia is pretty high. ARM has been allowed a lot of free licence and even help from potential competitors because of it’s agnostic approach.
 
Will be interesting to see - much of ARMs value and future profit comes from its onward march into devices and varied types of computing everywhere, underpinning so much of the technology of our lives, and nVidia has to know that.
 
Some updates on this. China might be a sticking point in the deal:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/17/tech/nvidia-arm-china-hnk-intl/index.html
https://www.ft.com/content/75aea61b-e2d9-4d8a-adad-868b9c76511d
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...provide-stumbling-block-in-arm-sale-to-nvidia

Also,it appears ARM is being sued,due to the problems WRT to its Chinese department:
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/arm-china-investor-sues-company-114801666.html

Apparently concerns by ARM employees have bee ignored:
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...eeting-over-softbank-arm-sale-to-nvidia-union

Opposition to the $40bn (£31bn) sale of the UK’s largest tech firm, Arm Holdings, is mounting, as the trade union Unite said staff concerned about their future had been “fobbed off” and the company’s local MP urged the government to act.

The US software company Nvidia said on Monday it had agreed to buy Arm, a global leader in designing chips for smartphones, computers and tablets, from the Japanese tech investment business SoftBank.
Arm's sale to Nvidia makes sense but we need binding guarantees | Nils Pratley
Read more

The government has so far declined to say whether it will consider deploying powers to block the deal or attach conditions, despite pressure from Labour, trade unions and Arm’s outspoken co-founder Hermann Hauser.

On Tuesday, Unite said members who worked for Arm at its Cambridge headquarters had been kept in the dark and fobbed off in an internal meeting, with senior figures telling them any transaction was at least 18 months away.

Unite called on the government to prevent the sale, saying ministers should be “protecting tech firms from being hollowed out by detrimental takeovers and providing the investment needed for the sector as a whole to flourish”.

Daniel Zeichner, the Labour MP whose constituency includes Arm’s headquarters, will meet union officials and employees on Friday.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, he called on the government to secure a legally binding guarantee to protect jobs as well as an exemption from US foreign investment rules.

Under Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) rules, which would apply to Arm if it was American-owned, the White House can intervene in transactions involving US firms.

Zeichner asked: “Why on Earth would we want to throw away such a bargaining chip in advance of trade negotiations?”

The government has said it is watching developments closely but the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, has so far refrained from “calling in” the deal to examine whether it goes against the national interest.

Under the Enterprise Act 2002, ministers can intervene if they believe a merger or takeover would compromise national security, media plurality, financial stability or the UK’s pandemic response.
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If Dowden calls the deal in, it would trigger a review by the Competition and Markets Authority, which would gather evidence about the deal’s implications. The final decision would rest with the government.

Hauser, who vehemently opposes the deal, has written an open letter to the prime minister calling for the company to be floated on the stock market, with the government taking a “golden share” that would give it the final say on matters deemed in the national interest.

He has also expressed concern that Nvidia would “dismantle” Arm’s model of freely licensing its technology – used in the majority of smartphones – to other companies, instead keeping the next generation of chips for itself to get ahead of competitors.

“They can make more than $40bn by destroying it,” he said.

Nvidia, which has promised Arm employees that they will take part in a $1.5bn share payout if the deal goes ahead, has said it will retain the open licensing model and keep its HQ, jobs and intellectual property in the UK.

But the company is yet to offer any more than verbal guarantees about its plans.

A spokesperson for Arm said: “Communication sessions have been ongoing with employees at a global, regional and departmental level since the deal was made public. Together, [Arm CEO] Simon Segars and [Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang held multiple interactive communications sessions with Arm employees, providing them with the highest levels of transparency within the legal constraints of the situation. It was also clearly communicated that the regulatory process does not have a specific timetable and employees will be kept informed as we get more information relating to the initial estimate of 18 months.”
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One of the co-founders of ARM is trying to block the sale:
https://www.businessinsider.com/nvi...uk-huawei-weapon-in-us-china-2020-9?r=US&IR=T

Hauser made three recommendations to the Prime Minister to protect the UK's national interests and to preserve Arm's status as a neutral chip designer: Nvidia would need to make legally-binding agreements not to cut UK-based jobs at Arm, not give itself preferential treatment over any other Arm licensees, and to give Britian exemption from US trade laws so UK companies may continue accessing Arm "unfettered."
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China are already in control of AMD, they will push hard to control any chip maker they can get through the back doors because Trump has given them no choice.

Trumps campaign against China and Huawei has left them fighting for their chips life so expect them to throw every thing at this.

In the end has Trump did them a favour? Once they establish the level of RND that Intel has. will this destroy Intel? No one is to big to fail, when China succeed the chips will get cheaper and they say they will dominate in the next 5 years and who is stupid enough to say otherwise.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
One of the co-founders of ARM is trying to block the sale:
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IMHO they lost all rights to say anything in regards to ARM on any matter regarding ARM on the whole as soon as they sold out in the first place, If I was softbank I would tell them where to go . It's naff all to do with them any more
 
pete910 said:
IMHO they lost all rights to say anything in regards to ARM on any matter regarding ARM on the whole as soon as they sold out in the first place, If I was softbank I would tell them where to go . It's naff all to do with them any more
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He voted against the sale to SoftBank originally,but the Chairman and board got greedy and overruled him.

Now the same chairman regrets pushing the sake through:
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/business/business-news/i-regret-selling-arm-says-13926432

Ask that guy why he got greedy then?

Countries such as the US and Japan wouldn't allow foreign sales of major companies. As usual the last 30 years of our governments don't care,giving useless reasons. An example when European countries wanted to tariff dumped steel to protect local steel industries but our lot didn't want to.

Yet the US,Japan,South Korea,France,etc can protect strategically important companies with no downsides.
 
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CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
They voted against the sale originally,but the board overruled them
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So if the board overruled a co-founder why do they think they can change the direction now ? :) They're not even an employee anymore.
I hated the sale originally, as a shareholder too, but it's up to Softbank now who they sell to and for how much. As a shareholder in NV I actually like the thought of Arm joining them, especially as I felt Arm was stolen from us shareholders when they sold out. It'd be better if we had a UK tech corp that could buy instead but firstly we no company in the position and able to do this, and secondly, UK gov seem to be more interested in accommodating sales to foreign owners.
 
DarrenM343 said:
So if the board overruled a co-founder why do they think they can change the direction now ? :) They're not even an employee anymore.
I hated the sale originally, as a shareholder too, but it's up to Softbank now who they sell to and for how much. As a shareholder in NV I actually like the thought of Arm joining them, especially as I felt Arm was stolen from me when they sold out. It'd be better if we had a UK tech corp that could buy instead but firstly we no company in the position and able to do this, and secondly, UK gov seem to be more interested in accommodating sales to foreign owners.
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Maybe because some in the current government have made noises about trying to start more UK focussed tech intiatives.

Unfortunately I can see RISC V gaining traction now because ARM is only successful due to its licensing model and freedom from governmental interference. The latter because our government really didn't realise what it was sitting on IMHO. This is why the government in 2016 let ARM be sold off as they were clueless on it's importance.

It's only going to make ARM based products be replaced by import substitution programmes. It's one of the reasons so many countries shunned X86 and MIPs for this very reason. Things such as CFIUS apply to any subsidiary of a US based company.

Already the EU and India has based their national CPU initiatives around RISC V,as an open source CPU instruction set, which doesn't need country dependent permissions to export devices.
 
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Does this mean that all future smartphones - tablets - phablets and generally low-power-consumption devices will move to RISC-V SoCs and ARM will be dropped once and for all?
Thus making this transfer from direct Softbank's ownership to Softbank's Nvidia division a big mistake?
 
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