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Makes pledges about expanding the Arm HQ in Cambridge, and about open-licensing.
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Makes pledges about expanding the Arm HQ in Cambridge, and about open-licensing.
RIP ARM.....
Downward slide begins now
Still doesn't sit right with me that a licensee is now in total control.
One of the next big announcements will be US Gov restricting ARM licensing to China based companies because it's now wholly controlled by a US org.
And here I thought the 11th was the saddest date in September...
Really hoping this deal will be stopped the regulatory bodies, though probably not from the US.
well done UK gov. Cutting your ARM off to spite your face. We should never have let it go overseas. We are run by narcissistic morons with no long-term strategy whatsoever
The founders of ARM have voiced some legitimate concerns. This means ARM is now subject to stricter export approval.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54142567
You got it wrong. They have a strategy - its called quick buck Britain which has been in operation for 50 years. Allow sell off our decent stuff to foreign interests,make a quick buck,and retire early. We are the first and only country to have a successful space programme and shut it down in the 1970s,because if was "cheaper" buying from abroad(well it wasn't as they then jacked prices up). France didn't get the memo,and started Arianespace.Quote:
ARM: UK-based chip designer sold to US firm Nvidia
UK-based computer chip designer ARM Holdings is being sold to the American graphics chip specialist Nvidia.
The deal values ARM at $40bn (£31.2bn), four years after it was bought by Japanese conglomerate Softbank for $32bn. ARM's technology is at the heart of most smartphones, among many other devices.Nvidia has promised to keep the business based in the UK, to hire more staff, and to retain ARM's brand. It added that the deal would create "the premier computing company for the age of artificial intelligence" (AI). "ARM will remain headquartered in Cambridge," said Nvidia's chief executive Jensen Huang. "We will expand on this great site and build a world-class AI research facility, supporting developments in healthcare, life sciences, robotics, self-driving cars and other fields."A senior government source told the BBC that there would not be a move to block the sale, but that conditions could be imposed on the takeover.
'Meaningless' promises
Softbank made commitments to secure jobs and keep ARM's headquarters in the UK until September next year. "So far, when you read the announcement coming from Nvidia they said they will honour that Softbank has made at the time," said Sonja Laud, chief investment officer at Legal & General Investment Management."But with the expiry about to happen and obviously the Brexit negotiations under way it will be very interesting to see how this develops in the future."This appears to address concerns that British jobs would be lost and decision-making shifted to the US. Last week, the Labour Party had urged the government to intervene.But two of ARM's co-founders have raised other issues about the takeover. Hermann Hauser and Tudor Brown had suggested ARM should remain "neutral", rather than be owned by a company like Nvidia, which produces its own processors. The concern is that there would be a conflict of interest since ARM's clients would become dependent on a business with which many also compete for sales.
Moreover, the two co-founders also claimed that once ARM was owned by an American firm, Washington could try to block Chinese companies from using its knowhow as part of a wider trade clash between the countries.Hermann Hauser (left) and Tudor Brown (right) have warned the takeover would have negative consequences
"If ARM becomes a US subsidiary of a US company, it falls under the Cfius [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] regulations," Mr Hauser told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "[That] means that if hundreds of UK companies that incorporate ARM's [technology] in their products, want to sell it, and export it to anywhere in the world including China - which is a major market - the decision on whether they will be allowed to export it will be made in the White House and not in Downing Street." He added that he believed the pledge to retain and increase the number of UK jobs was "meaningless" unless UK ministers stepped in to make it legally enforceable. Nvidia has said that it intends to maintain the "global customer neutrality" on which ARM's success rests.
Chip creators
ARM creates computer chip designs that others then customise to their own ends. It also develops instruction sets, which define how software controls processors.
It is based in Cambridge but also has offices across the world, including a joint venture in Shenzhen, China. Hundreds of companies license its innovations including Apple, Samsung, Huawei and Qualcomm. To date, ARM says 180 billion chips have been made based on its solutions. When Softbank acquired ARM, it promised to keep the company's headquarters in the UK and to increase the number of local jobs, which it did. Softbank's founder Masayoshi Son described the firm as being a "crystal ball" that would help him predict where tech was heading. But losses on other investments, including the office rental company WeWork, prompted a rethink. California-headquartered N vidia overtook Intel to become the world's most valuable chipmaker in July. Until now, it has specialised in high-end graphics processing units (GPUs). These are commonly used by gamers to deliver more detailed visuals, as well as by professionals for tasks including scientific research, machine learning, and cryptocurrency "mining". Nvidia is also one of ARM's clients, using its designs to create its line-up of Tegra central processing units (CPUs). Under the terms of the deal, Nvidia will pay Softbank $21.5bn in its own stock and $12bn in cash. It will follow with up to a further $5bn in cash or stock if certain targets are met.
Nvidia will also issue $1.5bn in equity to ARM's employees.
Server chips
Mr Huang has already said that one of the changes he wants to make is to accelerate development of ARM's designs for CPUs used in computer servers - a rapidly growing sector.
Amazon is among companies that are already betting on the tech. The use of internet-based services has led to ever-growing demand for computer servers.But experts say one risk Nvidia faces is that the takeover could encourage ARM's wider client list to shift focus to a rival type of chip technology, which lags behind in terms of adoption but has the benefit of not being controlled by one company. "ARM is facing growing competition from RISC-V, an open-source architecture," wrote CCS Insight's Geoff Blaber in a recent research note. "If its partners believed that ARM's integrity and independence was compromised, it would accelerate the growth of RISC-V and in the process devalue ARM."
Mr Blaber also suggested regulators might block the deal. "This process will take months if not years with a high chance of failure," he told the BBC. It's a deal which the man who founded ARM says is a disaster. And many in the UK's technology industry will agree with Hermann Hauser.
He opposed the 2016 sale of the chip designer to Softbank but accepted that the Japanese firm stood by its guarantees to boost employment and research in Cambridge. But a takeover by Nvidia, one of the many firms that licences ARM's designs, appears to pose a threat to its business model - why will its hundreds of other customers now have faith that they will have equal access to its technology?
In recent days leading figures in the Cambridge technology sector have lobbied Downing Street, calling for ministers to intervene to bring ARM back under UK ownership. There have been signs that the government is considering a more active industrial policy. Dominic Cummings, who has talked of the need for the UK to have a trillion dollar tech company, is leading the drive for a more interventionist approach. Now, with Hermann Hauser and others warning that this deal will make Britain a US vassal state, the government is under pressure to step in and ensure that control over vital home-grown technology is not lost to a foreign power.
I so look forward to Nvidia doing all it can to shut out competition by any trick it can...
I also wonder if China will look to pick up something like MIPS, going for RISK-V or picking their own following this?
They kind of did.Apple on purpose tried to bankrupt UK based Imagination Technologies,which then was bought up by a Chinese consortium. IIRC,the US government didn't allow MIPs to be bought as part of the deal,so was spun off to US based Wave Computing. However,China managed to do a behind the scenes deal to get hold of a MIPS license:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN25L15U
Oh boy, things will be so interesting.
- What will be Apple's take on this? They hate Nvidia and have a very important and strategic interest in ARM technology.real
- What about Intel and AMD? They will get a real heat from Nvidia.
- How this will impact Chinese ARM-based SoCs?
I would have thought that Apple wouldn't let this happen. They have money (cash) to buy ARM.
x86 based CPUmakers will be under even more pressure from now on. They need to up their game, like a lot.
Chinese will maybe turn to RISCV or some other non-US controlled technology? Is SPARC under open "source" side of the things?
It won't, the US desperately needs this, to slow down Chinas progress, it will have the opposite effect.
A small stumble, but China will come back more aggressively with it's own tech, this was on the cards years ago, they are fairly well prepared. Each sanction like this forces China to become more self sufficient, cheap processors, RAM (new O/S too?) going forward.
They've been doing the same with TikTok lately too, I don't use it personally, but the US are struggling to contain China.