Rumor: NVIDIA is interested in purchasing ARM (updated)
Nvidia is said to be interested in obtaining chip designer Arm. That is what sources involved in this say to financial news agency Bloomberg. Last week it was revealed that SoftBank, the current owner of Arm, would be considering a sale.
Nvidia has, according to Bloomberg sources, approached Arm in recent weeks about a possible acquisition. According to the sources, other bidders could emerge, but details are not yet known. Four years ago ARM was acquired by Softbank for a sum of 29 billion euros, and since then the value raised. Nvidia may have the means to acquire ARM after having recently been listed higher than Intel, but whether Nvidia's interest will eventually lead to a deal with SoftBank remains to be seen. Should it come to this, it would be the largest takeover in the history of the chip industry. A takeover of Arm will be watched by numerous authorities as many companies depend on its technology. An acquisition of Arm by Nvidia will mean a shift in the market and increase Nvidia's chances of growing in different markets.
Updated: Bloomberg now reports that NVIDIA is in advanced talks:
-- Bloomberg --
Nvidia Corp. is in advanced talks to acquire Arm Ltd., the chip designer that SoftBank Group Corp. bought for $32 billion four years ago, according to people familiar with the matter.
The two parties aim to reach a deal in the next few weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Nvidia is the only suitor in concrete discussions with SoftBank, according to the people.
A deal for Arm could be the largest ever in the semiconductor industry, which has been consolidating in recent years as companies seek to diversify and add scale. Cambridge, England-based Arm’s technology underpins chips in products including Apple Inc. devices and connected appliances.
No final decisions have been made, and the negotiations could drag on longer or fall apart, the people said. SoftBank may gauge interest from other suitors if it can’t reach an agreement with Nvidia, the people said. Representatives for Nvidia, SoftBank and Arm declined to comment.
Any deal with Nvidia, which is a customer of Arm, would likely trigger regulatory scrutiny as well as a wave of opposition from other users of the company’s technology. Other Arm clients could demand assurances that a new owner would continue providing equal access to Arm’s instruction set. Such concerns resulted in SoftBank, a neutral company, buying Arm the last time it was for sale.
A deal for Arm could become the biggest-ever acquisition in the chip industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Arm is owned by SoftBank and its $100 billion Vision Fund. The Japanese group bought Arm, which at the time was the U.K.’s largest listed technology company, for about $32 billion in 2016.
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Senior Member
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well considering that arm has such wide use on myriads of devices , if nvidia own arm they will sure push the envelop of dethroning the x86 from our desktop computers that really it is already moving that way sooner or later ...it makes sense .
I can see 2 futures about it ..1)nvidia buying em and improving their technology adding their own pushing even faster the x86 cpus out of the market .
2)nvidia trying to close down and increase licence fees forcing their technology to everything as much as they can and suddenly break news ...the new mobile phones have risk 5 Cpus !
and 3rd future ? ...Well i don't know

Interesting either way in such cases you only can sit back and watch really.
Senior Member
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nvidia is more likely to buy shares in ARM, theres too much redtape to get through to pull an acquisition off since these chips are used across the industry.
Senior Member
Posts: 308
Joined: 2019-01-18
That was my thought too. However, imagine Apple buying ARM. That would be even much more closed.
Anyway I don't think they would close stuff in ARM. Otherwise they would lose money right after investing on it. ( shooting their own feet. )
I agree about apple, we don't want to loose ARM to apple.
Senior Member
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Joined: 2014-07-21
Too expensive for a total buy I believe.
Senior Member
Posts: 2563
Joined: 2015-06-11
please no, don't let another company kill another CPU ISA...