SoftBank is rumored to be exploring a sale of ARM, the British chip designer that powers almost all of the major mobile processors from companies like Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, and Huawei – and now, it could have found a buyer. Nvidia is reportedly in “advanced talks” to buy ARM in a deal worth more than $ 32 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Nvidia is said to be the only company to be involved in concrete discussions with SoftBank for the purchase at this time, and a deal could come “in the next few weeks,” although it has yet to be finalized. If the deal comes to fruition, it would be one of the biggest deals in the computer chip business and likely to generate intense regulatory scrutiny.
SoftBank bought ARM in 2016 for $ 31 billion, and ARM has only grown in value since then, as its designs have become increasingly comprehensive for Android and iOS devices. Microsoft already makes an ARM-based Surface and a Windows version designed for ARM; Apple also recently announced that it would switch its Mac computers to ARM-based chipsets in the latest blessing for the company. As SoftBank seeks to pay off its growing pile of debts to appease restless investors, a selling ARM at its peak could help boost the finances of the Japanese tech conglomerate.
Nvidia would be an interesting owner for ARM, while the company is a leader in GPUs (which ARM also designs), it has little to do with CPU design or mobile hardware outside of its line of Tegra mobile chipsets (the most famous used by Nintendo Switch and Nvidia Shield line of decoders), which are actually based on ARM designs.
Owning ARM would give Nvidia much more power over the broader computing world, and would likely trigger a lot of scrutiny from regulators, given that Nvidia is an ARM customer, competing with other companies that also rely on ARM designs.
