NVIDIA Arm Acquisition Archives - Gizmochina

Nvidia’s $66 billion deal to acquire Arm has collapsed: Report

Sean — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 08:16:23 +0000

Nvidia was set to acquire Arm from the SoftBank Group for a whopping sum of 66 billion US Dollars. However, this deal saw scrutiny from various regulators and has apparently collapsed as of right now.

According to sources close the matter (Via ArsTechnica), Team Green’s deal with the Japanese multinational conglomerate has collapsed due to regulators in the US, UK, and EU raised various concerns regarding the possible market effects it will have on rivals within the semiconductor industry. Some of these concerns included anti competitiveness and even national security risks, while the known graphics card maker also faced a lawsuit by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) last year.

For those unaware, this deal was expected to be the largest ever in the chip industry and would have had Nvidia acquire the company behind ARM’s technology that powers most smartphones across the globe. While companies like MediaTek and others supported the acquisition, others including Qualcomm and Microsoft had objected to the purchase. The report further added that SoftBank will be receiving a fee of up to 1.25 billion US Dollars despite the deal collapsing and is now planning on putting up Arm on an initial public offering.

This will reportedly take place before the end of this year as per one of the people close to the matter. SoftBank might now list Arm in New York as Nvidia reportedly abandoned this deal earlier this week on Monday. This is still an unconfirmed report so take it with a pinch of salt for now, and stay tuned for more updates.

Nvidia pushes forward with CPU development, begins hiring in Israel

Sudhanshu — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 14:13:04 +0000

Back in September 2020, Nvidia announced its plans to acquire the British design house ARM Ltd for $40 Billion. Since then, the merger has been facing heavy scrutiny from both UK and US regulators with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) even proceeding with legal action against NVIDIA for partaking in a deal that the FTC believes would generate serious anticompetitive outcomes.

However, Nvidia seems adamant about the acquisition as the firm announced its entry into the CPU market by unveiling the Arm-based data center CPU dubbed the Nvidia Grace in 2021. The upcoming data center CPU is said to compete against Intel and AMD’s x86 based solutions.

Now, according to a new report by Globes, Nvidia has recently been on a hiring spree in Israel to recruit engineers for CPU development. The engineers are being recruited for a wide range of positions including hardware, software, and architecture development.

Nvidia CTO Michael Kagan has stated that “Israel, with its unique wealth of talent, is a key player in the global tech ecosystem, and we are excited to be creating a new CPU group here. We look forward to further growing our local R&D activities both in this area and in our extensive work supporting the local ecosystem through unique programs for startups and developers.”

According to Kagan’s statement, Nvidia is planning on making Israel its R&D stronghold for the upcoming ARM-based CPUs. The CPU group will join a variety of groups currently active in Israel, working on next-gen high-speed networking and HPC technologies, leading Nvidia’s DPU (Data Processing Unit) development, AI research, and more.

The company previously acquired the Israeli connectivity company Mellanox in April 2020 for $7 billion, which has made its workforce grow to 2,800 employees in the region. According to the recent report, the number will go up by hundreds in the coming year.

Nvidia receives support from MediaTek and other chip giants over its Arm deal

Sean — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 10:00:53 +0000

Nvidia has recently received support from three of the world’s largest chip makers that have expressed support for its deal to take over Arm. This deal was valued around 40 billion US Dollars and has also been under scrutiny.

According to a SCMP report, the known graphics card maker has gotten a boost from MediaTek, Marvell Technology, and Broadcom Corp as well. These firms are also the first customers of the UK Based Arm to publicly support Nvidia’s takeover of the chip designer. For those unaware, the deal has come under fire recently over national security grounds as well as competition within the industry.

Furthermore, the news arrives as the UK Competition and Markets Authority has been gearing up to deliver a review that could oppose this acquisition deal. Previously, other tech giants like Qualcomm and Microsoft along with Google had also expressed their concerns with this takeover, stating that the company might raise prices for its rivals in the market. Arm is a major chip designer with its tech being sold to more than 500 companies across the globe. At the moment, the company is being sold by Japan’s SoftBank Group.

Qualcomm voices its stance against the NVIDIA’s Acquisition of Arm: Report

Balaji S — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 18:49:15 +0000

Although it’s been months since NVIDIA announced the Acquisition of SoftBank-owned chipmaker Arm, the deal is yet to go through as it is under Scrutiny by authorities around the world. Now, Qualcomm has objected to this acquisition.

As reported by CNBC, Qualcomm has voiced its stance to US Govt’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, and China’s State Administration for Market Regulation. Apparently, it believes that NVIDIA might prevent other companies from using Arm’s Intellectual Properties(IP) in the future.

For the unware, Arm, a British Chipmaker(Arm Holdings) is currently owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group. It specializes in Semiconductor, Software design and currently licenses its ARM architecture(via IP) to various chipmakers. Its chip architecture is currently used across the world in Consumer Electronics like Smartphones, Automation, Networking, etc.

In September 2020, after rounds of talks, NVIDIA said that it will acquire Arm for $40 billion. During this, both NVIDIA and Arm said that the deal will create a premier computing company for the age of AI. However, the deal is yet to be completed as it is under scrutiny as mentioned above.

Besides, Qualcomm is not the only company opposing this deal. Companies like Huawei and other Chinese tech firms had expressed their concerns. Among this, Lenovo’s Former Chief Engineer had said that China’s Anti-trust regulator would turn down the deal citing monopoly as reason.

Either way, FTC has now proceeded to the “second phase” of investigations according to the report. It has asked NVIDIA and Arm to produce more documents regarding the deal and the process is expected to continue for several months down the line.

As for NVIDIA, it has said to CNBC that it believes the regulators will see the benefits of this acquisition and approve it. However, industry sources say that it has a high chance of getting blocked by one of the regulators.