Nvidia just purchased ARM for $40 billion
No immediate changes to Arm's open-licensing business are planned
by Corbin DavenportThis story was originally published 2020/09/12
11:01am PDTon Sep 12, 2020 and last updated 2020/09/14
12:23am PDTon Sep 14, 2020.
Arm Holdings is the company behind ARM processors, which power nearly every smartphone and tablet on Earth. SoftBank purchased Arm in 2016, and has been shopping around for potential buyers over the past few months. After days of speculation, it's now official that Nvidia is closing a deal to acquire ARM.
News first broke in July that graphics giant Nvidia was interested in Arm. Now it's official that the graphics specialist has purchased Arm for $40 billion, with Softbank keeping a ~10% stake in the new entity. In a press release, the company says that it currently doesn't want to change the open-licensing business model. Arm will also remain headquartered in Cambridge, where Nvidia also wants to open an AI research and education center to attract more talent.
Nvidia currently specializes in AI and graphics cards for gaming and professional use, but the company has also developed several products based on ARM. Its ARM-based Tegra chips are at the core of the Nintendo Switch, Nvidia Shield, and other devices. The acquisition places Nvidia at the center of ARM's growing dominance, as the platform is now extending to desktops, laptops, and servers.
Update 1: 2020/09/14 12:23am PDT by Manuel Vonau
Purchase confirmed
Nvidia has confirmed the $40 billion purchase. This article previously reported that Nvidia and Softbank were preparing to close a deal based on information from The Washington Post.
End of Update
Source: Nvidia
Thanks: Gurkanwal Singh