Idle Speculation on Nvidia and Arm – Could Nvidia’s acquisition plans for Arm break? Probably not, but Arm customers hate the deal, regulators do not seem to like it either, and it is possible Softbank could find better ROI with an alternative path.
Plumbing for Semis – Arm and SiFive are M&A targets, they provide crucial plumbing for almost all chips today, and their ultimate fate will have a big impact on the industry.
CNBC reported late last week that Qualcomm has objected to Nvidia’s proposed acquisition of Semis IP licensor Arm. According to this somewhat thinly sourced report, the US FTC regulators have […]
Arm CPUs are Eating the World – Twitter is moving to AWS and using Arm-based CPUs, a major milestone in the advance of Arm into the data center and really bad news for Intel.
Do Nvidia’s competitors want it to buy Arm? Chip companies are worried that Nvidia will be successful with Arm, but they are much more worried that Nvidia fails putting an immense burden on an industry that depends on Arm.
Nvidia for Arm – the view from China – Put simply, it is going to be very hard for Nvidia to get deal approval in China. Not impossible, but considerably long odds.
Nvidia for Arm first impressions – Softbank almost doubles its money in 3 years, Arm execs get $1.5b, RISC-V gets a huge boost. Nvidia can use its stock to buy an important asset, but a lot could go wrong – customers/competitors regulators, and China.
Death, Taxes and IP Licenses – Someone needs to create a Y-Combinator for semiconductor start-ups.
Arm for sale? Arm could probably benefit from new owners, but faces some big strategic challenges that need to be addressed soon.
Tears in the Rain – Arm in China – JVs in China almost always end in tears. Arm’s is just the latest, most public example of how these deals so often go wrong.