NVIDIA announced the purchase of ARM for $ 40 billion

SoftBank agreed to sell Arm Holdings to the american company Nvidia for up to $ 40.000 billion (33.700 million euros), ending four years of ownership.

This acquisition is expected to close in March 2022, subject to approval by numerous regulatory authorities around the world. Nvidia will pay more than half ($ 21.500 billion or € 17.700 billion) with its own shares.

The price of 40 billion dollars is a maximum amount, because the payment of a tranche of 5 billion dollars (4,2 billion euros) will be in cash or in shares of Nvidia and in addition to that it will be conditional « to the achievement of by Arm with specific objectives of financial performance ”, said the US group.

SoftBank Group is expected to retain between 6,7% and 8,1% of Nvidia's equity after the transaction.

While NVIDIA will retain ARM independence: 90% of the shares will belong to NVIDIA and 10% will remain in Softbank.

NVIDIA also intends to continue to use an open license model, avoid brand mergers and retain its UK headquarters and research facilities, plus lARM licensed intellectual property will be enhanced with NVIDIA technologies.

ARM's existing R&D center will be expanded in the area of ​​artificial intelligence systems, the development of which will receive special attention.

Even for research in the field of artificial intelligence, it is planned to build a new supercomputer based on ARM and NVIDIA technologies.

The sale puts a key supplier to Apple Inc and other industry companies under the control of a single player and will face possible opposition from regulators and competitors from Nvidia, the largest chip company in the United States for its market capitalization. .

The acquisition, subject to regulatory clearances, including in Britain, the United States and China, will likely come under scrutiny in China, where thousands of companies, from Huawei to small startups, are using the technology.

Nvidia is the largest manufacturer of graphics processors and is expanding the use of the gaming component in new areas, such as artificial intelligence processing in data centers and autonomous cars.

Pairing your own capabilities with Arm-designed central processing units could allow you to catch up or even get ahead of Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

"You have to monitor both the CPU and GPU roadmaps and that of course includes data centers," he wrote in a note, referring to central processing units and graphics processing units. “Strategically, Nvidia needs a scalable processor that can be integrated into its GPU roadmap, as is the case with AMD and Intel. «

The value of Nvidia's stock has multiplied by more than twenty in the last five years, giving the company more power to close big deals. Nvidia's market value has risen to more than $ 260 billion during that time, outpacing Intel.

The company has extended its dominance of the graphics chips used by gamers to new areas, such as artificial intelligence processing in data centers. It has also established itself in the burgeoning market for systems that power autonomous cars.

Arm technology, developed in Cambridge, England, underpins the chips that are essential for most modern electronics, including those that dominate the smartphone market, an area that Nvidia has managed to enter to implement its products.

The clients, including Apple Inc., Qualcomm Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Intel Corp., may require assurance that a new owner will continue to provide equitable access to Arm's instruction set.

Since it was these concerns that allowed SoftBank, a neutral company, to buy Arm the last time it was up for sale without much reaction.