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The tech industry is facing a billion dollar deal that affects all smartphone makers. File Image: AFP
Nvidia Wants To Take Over Chip Designer Arm: What That Means For Smartphone Users
What happened?
According to media reports, one of the biggest companies for the smartphone industry, the chip designers division, is about to be taken over by graphics card specialist Nvidia. The purchase price is said to exceed $ 40 billion.
The deal could be announced in the next few days, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Financial Times reported over the weekend.
The current owner, Japanese tech group Softbank, paid $ 32 billion for the British company four years ago.
¿Why is it so important?
The basic architecture of the chips, which are used in virtually all smartphones and the vast majority of tablets, comes from Arm. In other words, the British company owns the intellectual property rights that are essential for modern smartphones.
Based on the ARM designs, Apple and Samsung, among others, develop the processors for their smartphones. Chip company Qualcomm, whose processors are found in many Android phones, uses it too.
What will change for smartphone users?
Nothing at the moment. At least the actors involved in the deal try to convey that impression.
Bloomberg quotes Nvidia boss Jensen Huang as saying his company was spending a lot of money on the acquisition and had no incentive to “do anything that would make customers leave.”
The Verge writes: Perhaps to underscore that Arm wants to remain “a neutral technology provider” in the short term, the agreement emphasizes that Arm will continue to be based in Cambridge, Great Britain. And Nvidia has announced that it will invest in building a new artificial intelligence (AI) research center there.
Both the Californian company Nvidia and Arm apparently see opportunities for economic growth in the development of artificial intelligence software that can run on Arm’s chips, be it smartphones or laptops, even on servers in data centers. The Nvidia boss:
Where did Nvidia get the money for the acquisition?
Nvidia went big with PC graphics cards, but a few years ago it turned out that the company’s technology can be used very well for machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). That gave Nvidia’s business a new boost. The company is now also developing computers for driver assistance systems in cars and autonomous driving.
The Verge Discusses: Arm has likely continued to gain value since it was acquired by SoftBank, as Microsoft makes an Arm-based interface and a version of Windows for Arm, and Apple plans to switch future Macs to Arm-based chips. .
Nvidia is the leading manufacturer of graphics processors (GPUs), which Arm also designs. But aside from its Tegra line of mobile chipsets used in devices like the Nintendo Switch, Nvidia is not very active in CPU or mobile hardware design.
Puff up:
(dsc / sda / dpa)
