Blockbuster deal. Graphics giant NVIDIA has officially confirmed that it is acquiring ARM from SoftBank in a deal valued at a whopping $40 billion.
SoftBank purchased the UK based chipset designers for $32 billion back in 2016.
As stated in the blog post, this transaction will enable NVIDIA to create what it calls the premier computing company for the age of artificial intelligence. To that end, the firm plans to expand its presence in the UK by building a new global center of excellence in AI at ARM’s Cambridge campus.
An ARM powered AI supercomputer is also on the cards.
In the words of Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of NVIDIA:
“AI is the most powerful technology force of our time and has launched a new wave of computing. In the years ahead, trillions of computers running AI will create a new internet-of-things that is thousands of times larger than today’s internet-of-people. Our combination will create a company fabulously positioned for the age of AI.
Simon Segars and his team at Arm have built an extraordinary company that is contributing to nearly every technology market in the world. Uniting NVIDIA’s AI computing capabilities with the vast ecosystem of Arm’s CPU, we can advance computing from the cloud, smartphones, PCs, self-driving cars and robotics, to edge IoT, and expand AI computing to every corner of the globe.”
Magical.
Speaking of financials regarding this mega deal, SoftBank will have a 10% ownership stake in NVIDIA, and it will be paid $21.5 billion in common NVIDIA stock that equates to some 44.4 million shares of the graphics giant.
There is also $12 billion in cash, and up to $5 billion in earn out construct, while ARM employees will also receive no less than $1.5 billion in equity.
As is norm for a deal of this scale, the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, and is expected to be finalized within the next 18 months.
