arm Archives - AI News

Arm takes back control of its Chinese biz ahead of IPO

Arm has reportedly taken back control of its “rogue” Chinese business ahead of an expected IPO.

The Chinese venture of the British semiconductor icon began operating as an independent company and conducted its own in-house R&D to create new IP. Dylan Patel, Chief Analyst at SemiAnalysis, even penned a piece titled: ‘The Semiconductor Heist Of The Century – Arm China Has Gone Completely Rogue’.

Arm-owner SoftBank sold 51 percent of its stake in the Chinese...

29 April 2022 | Companies

Arm is cutting up to 1,000 jobs after Nvidia deal collapses

Arm is cutting up to 1,000 jobs from its global workforce after the collapse of Nvidia’s acquisition.

The British chip designer has struggled from relatively flat revenues and rising costs despite the huge success of the company’s licensees such as Apple, Qualcomm, and Amazon.

Nvidia proposed to acquire Arm for $40 billion and ensure the company is able to continue its pioneering work. However, the deal caught the eye of global regulators and rivals voiced their...

15 March 2022 | Companies

Nvidia exits from its proposed $40B acquisition of Arm

Nvidia is walking away from its proposed $40 billion acquisition of British chip designer Arm.

The deal caught the attention of global regulators with anti-competition investigations launched in several jurisdictions including the UK, EU, and US.

In November 2021, UK Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries decided to block the merger pending the results of a 24-week ‘Phase 2’ investigation.

With the merger looking almost impossible to be approved by regulators,...

8 February 2022 | NVIDIA

Nvidia attempts to alleviate Arm merger concerns in CMA response

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published responses from Nvidia and Arm that aim to alleviate concerns around their proposed merger.

Nvidia announced plans to acquire Cambridge-based Arm back in September 2020 in a deal worth $40 billion. As two of the biggest names in chip manufacturing, the deal naturally caught the attention of competition regulators around the world.

In November 2021, UK Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries decided to block the...

11 January 2022 | NVIDIA

FTC steps in to block Nvidia’s $40B acquisition of Arm

America’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has become the first regulator to sue to block Nvidia’s acquisition of British chip designer Arm.

Arm plays a critical role in the global technology supply chain with its designs used for edge AI chips and processors for smartphones, tablets, desktops, and servers.

It’s of little surprise that Nvidia wants to bring Arm under its wing and is willing to pay $40 billion (£29 billion) for it.

Global regulators,...

3 December 2021 | Legislation & Government

UK Digital Secretary orders ‘Phase Two’ probe into Nvidia-Arm merger

UK Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries has ordered a “Phase Two” probe into the proposed £29 billion merger between Nvidia and Arm.

The CMA (Competition & Markets Authority) has been investigating whether the deal is anti-competitive. In August, it declared the deal does indeed raise “serious competition concerns”.

Arm founder Hermann Hauser went further and suggested the merger would amount to “surrendering the UK’s most powerful trade weapon to the...

17 November 2021 | Legislation & Government

EU launches antitrust probe into $40B Nvidia-Arm acquisition proposal

The European Commission is following the UK in launching its own antitrust probe into the proposed Nvidia-Arm acquisition.

Nvidia has put in a $40 billion offer to acquire Cambridge-based Arm, which designs a large proportion of the chips that end up in devices.

“AI is the most powerful technology force of our time and has launched a new wave of computing,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, when the acquisition was announced.

“In the years...

28 October 2021 | Legislation & Government

Nvidia-Arm merger in doubt as CMA has ‘serious’ concerns

The proposed merger between Nvidia and British chip technology giant Arm is looking increasingly doubtful as the CMA (Competition & Markets Authority) believes the deal “raises serious competition concerns”.

A $40 billion merger of two of the biggest names in chip manufacturing was always bound to catch the eye of regulators, especially when it’s received such vocal opposition from around the world.

Hermann Hauser, Founder of Arm, even suggested that...

23 August 2021 | Companies

UK considers blocking Nvidia’s $40B acquisition of Arm

Bloomberg reports the UK is considering blocking Nvidia’s $40 billion acquisition of Arm over national security concerns.

Over 160 billion chips have been made for various devices based on designs from Arm. In recent years, the company has added AI accelerator chips to its lineup for neural network processing.

In the wake of the proposed acquisition, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said:

“ARM is an incredible company and it employs some of the greatest engineering...

4 August 2021 | Companies

TensorFlow is now available for those shiny new ARM-based Macs

A new version of machine learning library TensorFlow has been released with optimisations for Apple’s new ARM-based Macs.

While still technically in pre-release, the Mac-optimised TensorFlow fork supports native hardware acceleration on Mac devices with M1 or Intel chips through Apple’s ML Compute framework.

The new TensorFlow release boasts of an over 10x speed improvement for common training tasks. While impressive, it has to be taken in the context that the GPU...