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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Nvidia needs to develop APUs or be left behind by AMD and Intel.
This could happen.
Senior Member
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Joined: 2019-01-18
Nvidia needs to develop APUs or be left behind by AMD and Intel.
This could happen.
You don't need to purchase ARM to do that, you can just use ARM cpu cores like Nvidia have been doing for many years.
Tbh it would be a bit of a disaster if Nvidia got their hands on ARM, the whole way ARM works is to license out the architecture, let people make custom stuff and so on. Hence everyone uses it for everything unless they have to use x86 these days.
Nvidia like to close and lock down everything, and I can't seem them not doing that eventually if they get their hands on ARM.
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Do nvidia actually have this amount of money? Surely it will be a lot more than $29b now. Apple would be a better bet seeing as they are going into making more their own chips also.
Perhaps softbank need the cash after losing all that money on WeWork.
Nvidia reported $16b in cash in Q1. They could raise the money though, but I agree it would be better fit for Apple - their monetary position is also WAY better.
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Nvidia to take on Intel and AMD? Madness!
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Do nvidia actually have this amount of money? Surely it will be a lot more than $29b now. Apple would be a better bet seeing as they are going into making more their own chips also.
Perhaps softbank need the cash after losing all that money on WeWork.