Nvidia Arm purchase to be a $32bn+ cash and stock deal

[3dcandy]

Erm have we kinda forgotten the biggest elephant in all of this? Apple moving to ARM over it's whole product line?

NV would have a huge amount of leverage over Apple - something they've always wanted to do....

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Erm have we kinda forgotten the biggest elephant in all of this? Apple moving to ARM over it's whole product line?

NV would have a huge amount of leverage over Apple - something they've always wanted to do....

Maybe Apple will buy Nvidia!

[watercooled]

Erm have we kinda forgotten the biggest elephant in all of this? Apple moving to ARM over it's whole product line?

NV would have a huge amount of leverage over Apple - something they've always wanted to do....

Not really. Apple have an architecture license and design their own cores. To try pushing around Apple with unfair pricing etc would undoubtedly (and rightly) attract competition complaints, and not forgetting Apple have plenty of legal weight.

The fact that regulators aren't sniffing around on this stinks to high heaven for me.

What makes you think they're not?

[watercooled]

I am not seeing it though. A huge amount of ARM business is to companies which make Android based devices. Companies such as Qualcomm,Samsung,Fujitsu and the Chinese firms. I can't see them putting up with Nvidia trying a fast one on them,and it will only push them to other uarchs. You really think they will just stand by and allow Nvidia to try and do what they did to AMD?? I think not.

Which is precisely why it makes no sense to do that.

The only way it would work,is as Iota describes,as a totally separate business,with the current model.

And like I said in my very first post...

But again,ARM works though licensing IP,and they made $230 million in revenue in 2017. Even if they tripled that,that would be barely $700 million a year. It would take decades to get $30 billion back.

Another reason why it doesn't make much sense to me. People are discussing this like it's a done deal, but in reality it's just rumours on the Internet.

This only makes sense if Nvidia wants to be another Chipzilla and push out all the other ARM licensees,and make their own chips like Qualcomm does.

This is why I think they are trying to corner the market on ARM CPUs and push everyone else out. It fits in what Nvidia always tends to do.

Which is just toally unrealistic. Nvidia have tried to enter that segment before and were unsuccessful, plus it's not like they could enter that market without licensing technologies from the likes of Qualcomm, etc. They might find that challenging if they've hypothetically just pushed them from their near-monopoly position. But again, regulators would have something to say long before that happened. Also, how much experience do Nvidia have with modems and RF? Making a competitive mobile SoC involves far more than just gluing together some CPU and GPU cores. The reality is Nvidia have very little experience in this area, and it's also a fiercely competitive area.

[Tabbykatze]

Softbank is loosing a lot of money based on some poor investments,so actually are after cash. They even divested their own holdings in Nvidia last 2019,so I have to question how much of any purchase agreement will be stocks and how much will be cash?? They just have under $11 billion in actual cash. It will be interesting to see how this is funded.

It doesn't matter if any business is losing money, IP exchanging hands should always be regulated. Especially if it impacts the second largest CPU design on the planet.

What makes you think they're not?

I get you're playing a very smart game of devils advocate, but there have been no restricting statements and it's being barrelled through. The announcement for sales ponder only went up a couple of weeks ago.

How could the second largest CPU architecture design company that licenses to two of the three (surely microsoft has a license as well) largest operating system designers (Apple and Google) on the planet and the next two largest non x86 silicon designers on the planet (Samsung and Apple) as well as the black sheep, Huawei.

And then letting Nvidia, an underdog licensee have it...

Looking at it objectively, it stinks. It would be worse if Apple, Samsung or Google had it.

[watercooled]

I get you're playing a very smart game of devils advocate, but there have been no restricting statements and it's being barrelled through. The announcement for sales ponder only went up a couple of weeks ago.

I'm really not and nor is it that complicated. There are rumours of interest in a sale. Nvidia have not publicly expressed interest and nor have they moved to purchase, so why would regulators be piping up about something that might not even happen?

I think you're under the impression this is further ahead than it really is. The Hexus title does sorta come across that way though TBF.

[Tabbykatze]

I'm really not and nor is it that complicated. There are rumours of interest in a sale. Nvidia have not publicly expressed interest and nor have they moved to purchase, so why would regulators be piping up about something that might not even happen?

I think you're under the impression this is further ahead than it really is. The Hexus title does sorta come across that way though TBF.

Are you basing your entire side of the discussion on the fact that neither Softbank or Nvidia have publicly stated the level of discussion between them?

[watercooled]

What you're saying just doesn't make any sense.

Rather than trying to be sarcastic while completely missing the point, why don't you explain why and how you think regulators should be getting involved with private discussions between companies?

From Regulator X: If Nvidia are looking to buy ARM as we found out might be the case when we read rumours on the bus on the way to work, we would jolly well like them to know we would have concerns!

/s

It just doesn't work like that. If regulators trawled the web and offered official responses to every unsubstantiated rumour, they'd more than have their hands full, yet be completely wasting their time.

[DanceswithUnix]

A huge amount of ARM business is to companies which make Android based devices.

That's just the flashy headline grabbing stuff. Look around you, try and find something with a CPU in it that isn't an ARM chip. Routers and WiFi access points used to be MIPS, but they are pretty much all ARM now. My 3D printer uses an Atmel chip, but the next generation will be ARM. TVs are pretty much all smart TVs these days, and are ARM based.

ARM is such a success because the licence model allows this mind boggling breadth of product, precisely because ARM doesn't even try and make the silicon. Nvidia can't design and make all the chips, it would be futile to try and would just devalue the company they spent all that money on.

So while I get what you are saying Nvidia would have to be very focused on which market exactly they are targeting, and who they want to take on.

My expectation is for a push into servers and laptops. Apple would be helping with mindshare with their change to ARM, Nvidia already have a presence in servers for compute. They can draw on the existing licence fees as a cash cow, and push harder into new market segments, and make their billions back there.

[DevDrake]

Aside the main discussion, I am guessing another GPU price increase. someone has to pay softbank...

[watercooled]

Considering this: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...on-fitbit-buy/

I don't see how regulators wouldn't take a very serious look into any entity like Nvidia taking over ARM. ARM's importance in the market (and their continued neutrality) is far more significant than that of a wearables manufacturer. Softbank is not a competitor and had no real motive to derail ARM's business model so it's not comparable to their takeover.