A few months ago, it was reported that NVIDIA was interested in acquiring ARM. Well, the company has today officially announced that is acquiring ARM Limited from SoftBank for $40 billion.
This acquisition deal is expected to close in 18 months and meanwhile, both the companies will continue operating individually. After the acquisition process is completed, the ARM will operate as a division under NVIDIA but will continue to have its headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
The company has also confirmed that Simon Segars, CEO of ARM, and his management team will continue to work for ARM. It seems that the only change will be the parent company — shifting from Softback to NVIDIA.
It has been said that SoftBank will remain committed to ARM’s long-term success through its ownership stake in NVIDIA, which is expected to be under 10 percent.
For those who are unaware, SoftBank acquired ARM in 2016 for $31 billion. The company helps power mobile device processors for companies including Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm by licensing its CPU designs.
NVIDIA is the leading maker of GPUs but the company doesn’t do much when it comes to CPU design, apart from its Tegra line of mobile chipsets used in devices like the Nintendo Switch. The company is positioning the acquisition as setting up the next stage of AI computing.
While the deal will face regulatory scrutiny, the fact that NVIDIA and ARM don’t directly compete with each other could help to navigate the process.
