It’s really happening, isn’t it? According to a pay-walled exclusive from The Wall Street Journal, SoftBank is nearing a deal to sell Arm Holdings (the UK-based semiconductor company responsible for the ARM microarchitecture and instruction sets) to the world’s greenest graphics giant, NVIDIA. The deal is reportedly worth over $40 billion.
“SoftBank Group Corp. is nearing a deal to sell British chip designer Arm Holdings to Nvidia Corp. for more than $40 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest in a series of big asset sales by the Japanese technology conglomerate,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
“The cash-and-stock deal being discussed would value Arm in the low $40 billions,” the publication added. “The terms under discussion would mark a big win for SoftBank, which bought Arm four years ago for $32 billion and had struggled to jump-start growth in the business.”
Having branched out from its gaming roots to diverse segments such as data center, networking, and artificial intelligence, NVIDIA’s interest in Arm’s technology isn’t all that surprising. If the acquisition were to truly happen, green team would rise to a new level of power in the computing world due to ARM’s prevalence in mobiles and other devices.
Critics are worried about what the acquisition could mean for the company’s neutrality, however. Traditionally, Arm licenses its IP to just about everyone, but NVIDIA may have other plans for its competitors.