Nvidia vows to invest in Britain as part of US$40 billion Arm deal
- Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said he was ready to have a discussion with the British government about how to expand Arm’s research presence
- The British government could ask to examine the deal on national security grounds, and request certain undertakings, such as a commitment to Cambridge and jobs
The head of Nvidia Corp vowed to step up investment in Britain and increase jobs there as part of its US$40 billion acquisition of chip designer Arm, following complaints from an Arm co-founder that the deal would destroy the company.
SoftBank, which only bought Arm in 2016, had previously agreed to certain rules to buy Arm, such as retaining its headquarters in Cambridge, England, and increasing jobs – a commitment that Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang reiterated on Monday.
“We want to grow Arm and make it become even greater,” Huang told analysts on a call, adding Arm would hire more engineers, spend more on research and run a new artificial intelligence research centre in Cambridge.
Japan’s SoftBank to sell chip designer Arm to Nvidia for US$40 billion, reshaping semiconductor landscape
“The UK government will realise that we are making a very significant investment [in the country],” Huang said. He stopped short, however, of making formal job guarantees and said talks with the national government had yet to begin in earnest.
The deal, announced overnight, drew criticism from Hermann Hauser, a co-founder of Arm who told Reuters in an interview that it would spell disaster for Cambridge, Britain and Europe.
“It’s the last European technology company with global relevance and it’s being sold to the Americans,” he said.
If the company’s British character and open business model could not be protected, it would be better for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to back a flotation on the London Stock Exchange, Hauser said.
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Industry and potential antitrust concerns over the deal relate to Nvidia being a competitor to hundreds of Arm’s customers – including the likes of Apple and Intel – whereas tech investor SoftBank does not.
Nvidia’s Huang said he would retain Arm’s neutral licensing model and expand it by licensing out Nvidia intellectual property for the first time.
The head of Arm, Simon Segar, told the same analyst call a purchase by an American company would not affect which countries the company sold to.
Johnson’s government, set to embark on a new industrial strategy as Britain leaves the European Union at the end of this year, could ask to examine the deal on national security grounds, and request certain undertakings, such as a commitment to Cambridge and jobs.
The British government had no immediate comment on the deal.
Neil Campling, head of technology, media and telecommunications research at Mirabaud, said it was unlikely that Britain would block it.
