Technical Editor: Xu Jiu! From: Sifou Editorial Department
Nvidia is close to acquiring ARM and could close the deal as soon as the end of the summer, according to a U.K. report. The amount has not been disclosed, but SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son had hoped ARM would be sold for at least 40 billion pounds ($52 billion), or 363.7 billion yuan.
SoftBank is selling Arm in large part because of a huge loss last year of Y1.35tn ($12.5bn) on various investment plans, including WeWork.
So in April, SoftBank hired Goldman Sachs to help it find a seller. At first, Goldman helped SoftBank contact Apple, but Apple declined. Goldman Sachs led a consortium that included Samsung, Apple and Nvidia to buy ARM, but only Nvidia showed interest.
The Evening Standard reports that Nvidia is in exclusive talks to acquire ARM as soon as The end of The summer. Both parties declined to comment on The news.
The deal is likely to come under scrutiny from the British government, which would prefer to have ARM’s offices and factories in the UK to create jobs.
If Nvidia succeeds in acquiring ARM, it should be a good decision for both sides, according to industry analysts. SoftBank will be able to solve the problem of loss, Nvidia will be able to build its own CPU, and its peers into the IP licensing market.
However, some people said that after Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM, ARM will officially become an American enterprise, which is a “slap in the face” for domestic chip design companies in the current special period.
