Will ARM Ultimately Join NVIDIA? "Acquisition Talks Underway"

Masayoshi Son, Chairman of SoftBank

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] There is growing speculation that ARM, a semiconductor design company owned by Japan's SoftBank, will be sold to the U.S. graphics card company Nvidia.

According to foreign media on the 2nd, SoftBank is in discussions with Nvidia regarding the sale of ARM. The sale price is reported to be around $32 billion (approximately 38 trillion KRW). This is not significantly different from the price SoftBank paid when acquiring ARM in 2016.

ARM is a semiconductor design specialist company, with more than 95% of the world's mobile semiconductors manufactured based on its designs, demonstrating its significant influence. Leading global IT companies such as Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Huawei pay to use ARM's semiconductor designs.

SoftBank, led by Chairman Masayoshi Son, acquired ARM in 2016 but is now considering selling its stake in ARM after experiencing management difficulties due to failures in several investments, including WeWork. SoftBank holds 75% of ARM's shares, while its subsidiary Vision Fund holds 25%.

At the time of acquiring ARM, Chairman Son said, "It was the biggest bet of my life, looking 50 moves ahead in the game of Go." This is interpreted as a large-scale bet based on the expectation that the importance of semiconductors will increase further in the upcoming AI (artificial intelligence) era.

Nvidia, which is considering acquiring ARM, has expanded its business areas beyond graphics cards to data centers and AI over the past several years, and it is expected that acquiring ARM will create synergy with its existing businesses.

Apple and Samsung Electronics were also considered potential buyers, but the current sentiment is that Nvidia is the most likely candidate. If Apple or Samsung Electronics acquires ARM, antitrust controversies are expected. Since most smartphone companies use ARM designs, if ARM falls under one side, other companies would have to use competitor technologies.

Therefore, the semiconductor industry suggests that acquiring ARM would be quite burdensome for either Apple or Samsung Electronics. The U.S. economic magazine Fortune analyzed that while Apple’s interest in acquiring ARM seems related to its dominance in the mobile device market, many obstacles are expected if it actually attempts the acquisition.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.