Nvidia has terminated its bid to acquire Arm as a result of insurmountable regulatory hurdles.
Nvidia has confirmed the termination of its bid to acquire Arm from SoftBank Group in the face of insurmountable regulatory hurdles. In late January, there were whispers that Nvidia was quietly preparing to back out of the deal, but the company has now made its stance official. In lieu of an acquisition, SoftBank will now take Arm public via an IPO, which will take place within the next year or so. The UK-based firm is also undergoing a shake-up at executive level, with CEO Simon Segars to be replaced by Rene Haas (former VP of Arm IP) effective immediately. Arm operates upstream of Nvidia and its rivals, licensing out chip architecture to hundreds of different customers, including the likes of Intel, Samsung, Apple, Huawei and Qualcomm (and Nvidia, of course). The company receives an upfront licensing fee from each customer, but also a per-unit royalty on all chips that incorporate its technology, typically worth 1-2% of the selling price. The Nvidia-Arm deal attracted a great deal of suspicion from regulators and competitions from the outset.
