Abacus | Re-Arm-ed: Nvidia’s move on UK chip giant sets up US-China tech war showdown
- Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm: was it a strategic business move by SoftBank or an opportunistic grab by the US?
- One wrong move from here and Chinese software developers could be next in line to be cut off from US tech
FROM LITTLE ACORNS
Arm, originally Advanced RISC Machines Limited (Arm), was founded in 1990 as a joint venture between Acorn Computers and Apple Computers (now Apple Inc.), having its origins in 1983 designing the first RISC processor used in small computers, including the popular BBC Micro.
Arm does not make the chip processors, but designs them and charges an initial licence fee that covers its costs and then a royalty on every chip its partners make using its design. It is an unusual and very profitable business model in the semiconductor industry.
Arm is considered to be globally dominant, especially in mobile devices, and you will find Arm designs in just about everything, from all brands of smartphones, tablets and computers to supercomputers, IoT devices, networks, and even in space. Most recently, its processor designs have been key in the development of autonomous driving cars.