Jerry Hildenbrand is from the Android Central.
It would seem like a good move for consumers to see Nvidia buying Arm. It would be a new place for Nvidia to design and license machine learning properties and buffer the capabilities of the standard Mali GPUs used in so many mobile devices. It seems like that's not going to happen.
In September 2020 it was announced that it would be spending $40 billion. The company would remain in Cambridge England for the foreseeable future, and Softbank would gain a 10-percent stake in the company. The next step was to get regulatory approval.
The E.U dislikes the purchase. The FTC is trying to block the merger completely. The Chinese government is unlikely to approve of the acquisition by Nvidia unless they can get a legal way to funnel money and technology into the country. One of Arm's original founders is against the idea.
If you're wondering why a British company owned by a Japanese corporation would need approval from the E.U. or China, well, technically, it doesn't. The sale can go forward if Great Britain, Japan and the U.S. approve it. The two governments are very much involved because the two governments would like to sell products in the U.S. and China.
Jerry Hildenbrand is from the Android Central.
I don't like the idea of someone buying Arm and I've written about it several times. I don't care what's best for any company that makes Arm chips that power the best phones in the world. I care about the long-term effects of tech industry consolidation on consumers.
I would like to thank the people who contacted me to let me know they disagreed with my views on the matter. I agree with the idea that this will spur development on other existing processor architectures or even drive a company like Apple to fund the development of a new design. Even if Arm becomes more challenging to work with, I'm confident that companies will just play along because it's easier and more cost-effective.
I'm a fan of the graphics card maker. I think the company makes excellent graphics cards and its current Arm chips are great at being everything except power- efficient. I have paid retail for about a dozen products powered by the same company. I have to listen to what others have to say. There are a number of reasons why Nvidia would be a bad steward for the ARM designs. Apple was kicked to the curb over its practices. I'll let him say it, because the developer that powers your phone has a message that I'm not able to repeat. It's pretty salty.
There is no reason to think that Nvidia will have the same attitude. Arm is a unique company that makes money by not making any products themselves. The company makes money by charging license fees. This is what I said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
My feelings should not have any bearing on my feelings for either Apple or Linus Torvalds. The final word comes from regulatory bodies around the world. If China thinks the sale will go through, things will only get worse.
We might have dodged a bullet if we had not allowed Nvidia to license its core designs.
