Nvidia CPU's? Nvidia is looking at a takeover bid for ARM

[Grim5]

One of the ARM co-founders is saddened by what happened:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53637463





Even the ARM co-founder said Nvidia would be a terrible owner,so yes a consortium would be a better choice. As he mentioned ARM has to stay neutral and be easily licensable,other as he said companies will look at other alternatives.

why didn't the British Goverment block first sale? Seems like a historically bad idea given the situation we now face with Huawei and countries wanting to nationalise the tech industry to gaurantee national and citizen security

 

[Grim5]

One of the ARM co-founders is saddened by what happened:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53637463





Even the ARM co-founder said Nvidia would be a terrible owner,so yes a consortium would be a better choice. As he mentioned ARM has to stay neutral and be easily licensable,other as he said companies will look at other alternatives.

why didn't the British Goverment block first sale? Seems like a historically bad idea given the situation we now face with Huawei and countries wanting to almost nationalise their internal tech industry to gaurantee national and citizen security

 

[HACO]

why didn't the British Goverment block first sale? Seems like a historically bad idea given the situation we now face with Huawei and countries wanting to nationalise the tech industry to gaurantee national and citizen security

Because they cared more about the short term (one-time influx of foreign capital to the UK) than the longer term (keeping one of the world's most important tech companies British).

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

why didn't the British Goverment block first sale? Seems like a historically bad idea given the situation we now face with Huawei and countries wanting to nationalise the tech industry to gaurantee national and citizen security

Because its the quick buck mentality. The same was done to our aerospace industries eventually(we would have been much bigger otherwise).

 

[AthlonXP1800]

BREAKING NEWS: SOFTBANK AGREED TO SELL ARM HOLDINGS TO NVIDIA FOR $40BN

https://twitter.com/kyodo_english/status/1305289397940576256

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...hrase=ARM&words=Arm,arm,Armed,arms,Arms,armed

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54142567

Nvidia now confirmed they acquired ARM.

NVIDIA to Acquire Arm for $40 Billion, Creating World’s Premier Computing Company for the Age of AI

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/...s-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai

 

[Blackjack Davy]

God help us all.

 

[JohnG7]

I posted in GPU section, was not sure where to post it but it is good UK jobs to be kept.

 

[smilingcrow]

Assuming the regulators agree to this deal.

 

[gronf]

^ Nothing a few gifted leather jackets can't fix..

 

[Destination]

Assuming the regulators agree to this deal.

Which regulator?

 

[blaineoliver]

Ewww, this is horrible. I was hoping this wouldn't happen.

 

[NinjaCool]

Same here I would rather it be a consortium than Nvidia

 

[pc-guy]

I posted in GPU section, was not sure where to post it but it is good UK jobs to be kept.

You would hope so. Nvidia said they are hoping to keep jobs in the UK and endeavours to do so. Basically all corporate speak for “ya that’s what’s been said but nothing got written down so we ain’t gonna do it” also that agreement/promise is only till September 2021.

anyway ARM will begin a slow death in UK now. Nvidia will slowly start shifting design and focus to US now.

 

[Random Guy Esq.]

This is from the Anandtech article on the acquisition;

To that end, while NVIDIA is just starting discussions with regulators – the deal was secret and not being discussed with partners nor regulators until this evening – the company is already making concessions and guarantees to the British government to get its approval. This includes committing to keeping Arm headquartered in Cambridge, and continuing to do a significant amount of their engineering work there. The company is also announcing that they will be building one of their AI “centers of excellence” in Cambridge. Besides providing an environment for cutting-edge AI research and training, NVIDIA will be building an Arm & NVIDIA-powered supercomputer at the site.

 

[HACO]

You would hope so. Nvidia said they are hoping to keep jobs in the UK and endeavours to do so. Basically all corporate speak for “ya that’s what’s been said but nothing got written down so we ain’t gonna do it” also that agreement/promise is only till September 2021.

anyway ARM will begin a slow death in UK now. Nvidia will slowly start shifting design and focus to US now.

Talent in the UK is very good in areas that Nvidia values (AI, computer architecture, etc), and is much cheaper than the US so I expect UK jobs will remain there or expand, however, Nvidia will make profits off of ARM, and those profits will leave the UK.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

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

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.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

You would hope so. Nvidia said they are hoping to keep jobs in the UK and endeavours to do so. Basically all corporate speak for “ya that’s what’s been said but nothing got written down so we ain’t gonna do it” also that agreement/promise is only till September 2021.

anyway ARM will begin a slow death in UK now. Nvidia will slowly start shifting design and focus to US now.

"Hoping" is not the same as "committed" which Sofbank declared they would be and increase jobs in the UK which they did, Herman Hauser was speaking about this on the news just now and diidn't believe Nvidia would do the same.

Nvidia in control of so much IP should be a klaxxon sounding to the regulators in the UK if not the world in general, probably won't be though and we'll all suffer as a result.

 

[Hades]

I think this is a good move for Nvidia. But it's disgraceful the way the UK sells anything of value (I appreciate that happened when they were sold to Softbank).

 

[HACO]

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

No matter what Nvidia says right now, ARM will be absorbed into Nvidia at some point over the next decade. It's not going to happen overnight, but Nvidia didn't just spend $40b of their valuation and cash to get a $1b profit each year.

 

[smilingcrow]

Which regulator?

The usual ones; Government agencies.