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It's in Nvidia’s interest to crush ARM like a bug

by on04 September 2020


Worth more dead than alive

ARM co-founder Hermann Hauser has warned that it is in Nvidia’s interest to destroy the company he co-founded.

For those who came in late, SoftBank is in advanced talks with US chip company Nvidia to sell ARM -- with a price in the region of 32 billion euro.

Not only will Nvidia's purchase of the Cambridge-based chip designer  strike a blow to the UK's technological sovereignty, but would result in the destruction of ARM itself, Hermann Hauser warned.

Hauser said: "They are the semiconductor company that can buy ARM to destroy it -- and it is very much in its interest to destroy ARM because they [would] gain a lot more than the 40 billion that they pay for it.”

Hauser says the acquisition would allow Nvidia to swipe "the microprocessor crown from Intel", and become the chip supplier for 95 percent of mobile phones, 90 percent of embedded controllers for the internet of things, as well as taking the PC and data centre markets.

Hauser says that an ARM acquisition is a means for Nvidia to become the dominant microprocessor company in the world, "at the same time as they can prevent their main competitors" from making use of further ARM developments.

Instead, competitors would need to "scramble" to create their own architecture, handing Nvidia the edge.

ARM's business model is acting as the "Switzerland of the semiconductor industry" -- maintaining relations with many customers around the world. Most of them of course, are competitors to Nvidia, said Hauser.

 

Last modified on 04 September 2020
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