With NVIDIA’s history of heavy-handed tactics, a potential Arm acquisition would probably be bad news, right? That’s pretty much a certainty, according to co-founder Hermann Hauser, who recently talked to the BBC about Softbank’s intention of selling off the mobile-chip leader. In a moment of frankness, Hauser stated that the deal would be a “disaster,” as the company would not be able to retain its neutrality and license to anybody/everybody under NVIDIA’s ownership.
“It’s one of the fundamental assumptions of the ARM business model that it can sell to everybody,” he explained. “The one saving grace about Softbank was that it wasn’t a chip company, and retained ARM’s neutrality. If it becomes part of Nvidia, most of the licensees are competitors of Nvidia, and will of course then look for an alternative to ARM.”
Dr. Hauser doesn’t think a deal with NVIDIA will actually happen, but he hopes that the UK will intervene and help make Arm an independent company again. “The great opportunity that the cash needs of Softbank presents is to bring ARM back home and take it public, with the support of the British government,” he said.