Two weeks ago a report surfaced detailing Nvidia's apparent interest in acquiring Arm. Now, it looks like negotiations are already well underway, as reported by Bloomberg.
According to the publication, which cited "people familiar with the matter," Nvidia is Arm's only potential buyer right now. The companies are reportedly in "advanced talks" and considering a transaction of stock and cash, though no price has been set yet. Arm was valued at $32 billion back when SoftBank acquired the company in 2016. Nvidia would be able to afford this transaction thanks to increases in its stock price over the past year.
In four years under SoftBank's direction, Arm's annual revenue has only increased from $1.2 billion to $1.9 billion, as reported by the Financial Times. Under a new roof, such as Nvidia's, there is a chance that Arm could meet higher expectations. Nvidia's revenue has tripled in that same timeframe.
However, there are concerns to be had with Nvidia acquiring Arm. The transaction would have to be subject to tough antitrust investigations, as Arm is a fundamental player in much of the technology industry. Arm licenses its architectures to clients such as Qualcomm, Apple, Broadcom and even Nvidia itself from time to time. Placing this licensor in the hands of Nvidia would give the graphics card maker a lot of power in the market.
One of the important developments to note in this process is that Apple is currently transitioning its Mac systems to its own silicon design, which will feature an Arm architecture.
Whether the deal will go through is unknown, but we do know that if it happens, it could fundamentally change the technology landscape as we know it.
