NVIDIA to Acquire Arm for $40 Billion
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Maddness
Wow, this is huge news. 😱
Clawedge
https://yggdrasille.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/nooo-meme-darth-vader-04.jpg?w=640
Size_Mick
There goes the neighborhood...
cryohellinc
I take that as good news - while mainly they will aim for the corporate, on the consumer side we will get even more competition as Nvidia / AMD / Intel now will have access to both CPU's and GPU's to compete with.
Interesting times.
XenthorX
Nvidia had to make a move toward further CPU integration if it wants to stand a long term chance against AMD and Intel coming after its business.
Kaarme
Meanwhile, Nvidia hired outside consultants to host lessons and give presentations because no Nvidia exec or employee could understand what the words "open-licensing" and "customer neutrality" mean.
Undying
Yeah, all three companies making cpus and gpus. Who ever though we gonna see that happen.
Picolete
I wonder how Apple took this
Denial
I don't see why they would care. They have a perpetual license and I doubt regulators would let Apple buy ARM anyway.. they'll keep developing their CPUs and this really won't effect them much.
H83
What are the idiots of the EU doing allowing this deal??? Don´t they realise Europe is going to be completely dependent of the US regarding crucial technologies??? Doesn´t Google and Facebook made them learn anything about being dependent from others in key areas???
It seems they are more concerned with electric cars...
Denial
Did they allow the deal? Pretty sure it goes through government approval after the companies agree to the merger, not during or before.
That being said, they are probably going to allow it lol
schmidtbag
I feel this is more good news than bad news, but as an ARM enthusiast, I am skeptical of the future for things like SBCs. Nvidia has a tendency to make a lot of proprietary technologies, where for example they could make some new instruction sets or major leaps in performance that only they have access to, leaving the other licensees behind.
As a Linux enthusiast, my worries are rather neutral. Nvidia seems to be allergic to open source and cooperation, but, ARM's leadership in the past wasn't any better. Unlike ARM's previous leadership, Nvidia does actually regularly keep their Linux efforts as functional and up-to-date as realistically possible, so although ARM is still probably going to be locked-down, at least we don't have to depend on an ancient kernel to get drivers working properly.
If you're not aware, ARM hasn't really been European in a while. SoftBank was the previous owner of ARM, and they're Japanese. Even if ARM was still under British control, well... the UK (to my understanding) aren't part of the EU anymore.
Kaarme
Yeah, I imagine the USA and EU will actually allow it, but probably with some conditions. The UK government already had some conditions in place originally. That being said, I expect Nvidia will honour the conditions for a few years, but after that it's anyone's guess. Since Nvidia is an American company, the US government might even feel like this is a good thing. If Nvidia shuts down operations in the UK some years from now and moves them to the USA, any American govenment would consider it a good thing, again. At that point the UK would no more have anything to do with the EU, so the EU probably couldn't do anything about it. The UK might slap Nvidia with a fine of billions of pounds, which Nvidia would challenge in the court for half a decade, easy. In the mean time Nvidia would have earned far more billions through owning ARM and all of its patents. That's just how it goes.
JamesSneed
I bet many tech companies are like F*%k. Apple just went all in ARM making laptop CPU's that is going to sting a bit. Then you have companies like AMD that use arm embedded into there CPU's and GPU's for security functions and a couple other things. I know AMD will not ever want Nvidia to have there internal road maps so that should get fun. ARM is so pervasive having a company that loves proprietary buy it up has to have a lot of people sweating a bit.
JamesSneed
That is true but I have a feeling Nvidia will figure out of there way to get some revenue from Apple. Those perpetual licences usually are only for particular core IP so new ARM designs would need a new license. It is feasible Nvidia puts a lot into core IP and you either get on board or get left behind but that ticket to get on board will be a lot higher than before.
H83
Yes i´m aware of that but Softbank was neutral or close to it unlike an american company. And despite the UK not being part of the EU, that doens´t matter anyway because the EU should find a way to simply buy ARM instead of Nvidia. They could easily print some more monopoly money to do it.
This leaves the EU complety dependent of the US for crucial tech and that os not good.
Loobyluggs
Just to put a reputable news source on this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54142567
schmidtbag
At this rate, Apple practically has their own architecture. It's kinda like comparing Mac OS to BSD - it's using a [Free?] BSD kernel but Apple diverged so far from it that they're not really similar anymore. So, Nvidia could make their own changes and whether they're mainstream for their licensees or not, Apple will likely go their own path anyway.
Despite a perpetual license, I'm sure Nvidia will find some way to spite Apple. The two companies do not get along, and unlike Epic, Nvidia is smart enough to know how to use the legal system to their advantage.
Not like I care - whatever happens to Apple is their own fault.
JamesSneed
Thats where I'm going this isn't good news for Apple one way or another. ARM had recently just finished the Coretex-A1 which was to compete with AMD and Intel. They claim to have a 33% IPC improvement. I could very well see Apple wanting to license this or the next iteration as they move into desktop chips.
tunejunky
this is indifferent news to Apple, even though one would think they would have bid on ARM.
royalties will still be paid regardless of how much the "bionic" Apple cpu resembles the new iteration or not.
i fully expect the Apple to outperform the A-1 on the next gen Apple product line. they have sunk Billions Of Dollars into this design. not that that by itself means anything, but that it's Apple that's doing it that matters.
and honestly, it remains to be seen how well the ARM A-1 will do vs. the Qualcomm Snapdragon.
but it is brilliant for Nvidia to bolster it's bottom line with royalty income from the mobile market...which dwarfs the gaming sector.
