Qualcomm Moots a Consortium of Chipmakers to Buy Arm if NVIDIA's Bid Fails

[btarunr]

Qualcomm is proposing a consortium of companies that will make a competitive bid to acquire Arm Holdings from SoftBank, if NVIDIA falters in its acquisition, according to a report in The Telegraph citing an interview with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. Unlike NVIDIA's bid, where a single company that's in the SoC designing business, gets to own Arm IP, giving it a competitive upper-hand over other Arm licensees; the consortium would be made up of several companies, including Qualcomm, one of Arm's largest IP licensees, which makes SoCs for smartphones, tablets, wearables, and IoT devices, across all market segments.

"If Arm has an independent future, I think you will find there is a lot of interest from a lot of the companies within the ecosystem, including Qualcomm, to invest in Arm," said Amon. "We will definitely be open to it, and we have had discussions with other companies that feel the same way. That's the reason it's a logical conclusion for us, and for many other companies, that to invest in a strong and independent Arm is probably the best for everyone," he added. NVIDIA is in the process of acquiring Arm Holdings, lock, stock, and barrel, in a humongous $40 billion deal, which has run into hold-ups with competition regulators across the globe, including the UK, the home of Arm Holdings.



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[mtcn77]

I hope, I just hope this goes through. Qualcomm has a unique position in the Arm market. Everyone knows and trusts Apple makes the best cores. Well, in terms of power vs. performance Qualcomm is Apple's match - they have a shorter performance scale, but their power efficiency makes up for it!
This would be the best thing to come in Arm Holding's way, Nvidia is power hog trash, sorry for blunt frankness.

 

[R0H1T]

The way things are going Nvidia will quite likely acquire ARM, the only way deal doesn't go through is really the regulators in EU/UK or China stop it!

 

[mtcn77]

The way things are going Nvidia will quite likely acquire ARM, the only way deal doesn't go through is really the regulators in EU/UK or China stop it!

Weird thing is, Arm's China division is not complying with company directives...

 

[TheLostSwede]

This is what should've happened to start with. As always, companies are slow to act, but arm shouldn't be owned by a single chip maker, it's not good for competitive reason. In fact, arm should be turned into a "non profit" in the sense that anyone should be able to license arm technology and all the proceedings should go towards R&D etc. and not towards shareholders profit.
The real problem is that after MIPS failed to keep up, arm has become more or less ubiquitous, with only very recently some RISC-V cores starting to appear in the MCU market.
As such, if Nvidia gets full control of arm, they would be in control of pretty much the entire market of low power chips, ranging from air conditioners to smartphones to cars and factory automation. This wouldn't be a good thing and a lot of their competitors would most likely look elsewhere, even though there aren't many options today that could replace arm based chips in many markets.
I guess this is also a flaw in the market as a whole, arm got a lead and the competition didn't get enough interest/investment, so they kind of fell off the board so to say. Yes, MIPS are kind of still around, but no-one seems to really care, despite MIPS having gone open sauce.
It's really quite sad that this kind of technology is controlled by so few companies these days.

 

[john_]

Nvidia vs Qualcomm(consortium or not).
Damn, ARM's future is between black and extremely dark grey.

 

[Xajel]

I really don't wish NV or Qualcomm to hold ARM. But a consortium is okay'ish as long as other major players are in the mix like MediaTek, AMD, Samsung.

Like how I don't like Intel buying SiFive (RISC-V designer), even though this is harmful than NV buying ARM.

 

[watzupken]

I would prefer ARM to be independent, i.e. not owned by any tech companies. It Nvidia manage to complete the acquisition, things will start going south from there. I am not sure if ARM will be in a mess if its owned by a bunch of tech companies as well since each one will want their way.

 

[bonehead123]

Well, it's been my experience that the REAL, underlying problem with tech consortiums/mergers/takeovers/buyouts is that in the beginning, all the members start out (publicly) saying they are all in it together with the same goals, aspirations, etc etc....

Then when they see all details/secrets of the actual IP involved, they start scheming about ways to grab & hold onto some of it for themselves, so they can claim to have developed the next "big thing" and get their grubby, slimy hands on all the money it will generate for the execs, so they can buy even moar yachts, mansions, uber-expensive cars, whores/mistresses, jewelry etc.. etc..

Capitalism 101 at it's finest...

Here's ANUTHA vote for an independent ARM ....

 

[defaultluser]

Well, now it becomes clear why Qualcomm has been paying for promotional shit-talking articles on how this merger is a bad thing Meanwhile, they have killed Kryo, Centriq, and now NUVIA is a deer-in-the-headlights.

Nvidia continues to develop/ship it's own Project Denver successors in it's Tegra compute units (so it's the most-likely company to think long-term stability for CPU design)

In terms of GPU side, both Nvidia and Qualcomm have their own superior GPU to Mali (so either company will likely kill it off after purchase), but Qualcomm will be the worst benefactor I can think of for CPU dev (they want it fast and easy, or they will cut you loose).

The only long-term plan Qualcomm ever has is for building market-dominating wireless chips into everything it builds; dominating GPU and CPU are secondary to that mission.

 

[mtcn77]

The only long-term plan Qualcomm ever has is for building market-dominating wireless chips into everything it builds; dominating GPU and CPU are secondary to that mission.

Qualcomm has that uncontested IP. Everyone would be better off paying Qualcomm royalty and we reap their wireless benefits.
PS: I think Qualcomm has more relatable IP in the Arm ecosystem.

 

[Richards]

Arm needs to go nvidia.. not monopolist qualcomm