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Arm reportedly developing its own prototype chip

Arm, the company behind ARM chip designs used by several tech companies, including Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek and more, is making its own chip.

The details come from a Financial Times report, which says Arm tasked its new ‘solutions engineering’ team with producing a chip to show off the capabilities of Arm’s designs. The team is headed by former Qualcomm executive and Snapdragon designer Kevork Kechichian. Work started about six months ago, and the Times reports that several industry executives told it that the design is “more advanced” than any other semiconductor produced in the past.

But before you get too excited, it’s worth noting that Arm reportedly doesn’t plan to sell or license the design. Given the company’s business model of licencing its designs to other companies, it makes sense that Arm doesn’t plan to sell its own chip.

Instead, it seems the company wants to show off what its designs can do, allowing it to break into other markets. Arm recently warned investors that it has a “significant concentration” risk — in 2022, 86 percent of Arm’s revenues came from just 20 customers. Losing a small number of customers could have a significant impact.

One clear market where Arm could break in would be PCs. Apple already uses ARM designs in Mac devices, but outside of a small number of Qualcomm-powered Windows PCs and Chromebooks, Intel and AMD still largely dominate. If Arm can prove its chips can compete (and if Microsoft can get its act together with Windows on ARM), we might see more ARM-powered PCs in the future.

Beyond that, the chip efforts could benefit consumers in other ways. The solutions engineering team is reportedly working on ways to improve performance and security in ARM chip designs. These improvements could eventually make their way into future devices.

Source: The Financial Times Via: Engadget

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Arm to cut almost 1,000 jobs following collapse of Nvidia deal

Arm, the U.K.-based company behind ARM chip designs used in smartphones, Apple computers, and more, plans to cut almost 1,000 employees from its workforce.

The news comes after Arm’s parent company, Softbank, abandoned plans to sell Arm to Nvidia for $40 billion USD (roughly $51.1 billion CAD) due to “significant regulatory challenges.” Instead, Softbank planned to take Arm public.

The Telegraph reported that Arm’s chief executive, Rene Haas, told staff on Monday that the company could cut between 12 and 15 percent of employees. According to The Guardian, Arm has 6,500 employees worldwide — 15 percent would be about 975 employees.

Arm says the majority of the roles affected will be in its U.K. and U.S. workforces. The Telegraph saw an email sent by Haas, which said:

“This is going to be a tough time for everyone, so I want to be clear on why we are doing this.

“To be successful in the opportunities we have ahead of us, we need to be more disciplined about our costs and where we’re investing.

“To stay competitive, we need to remove duplication of work now that we are one Arm; stop work that is no longer critical to our future success; and think about how we get work done. It’s essential that we focus on activities that will move our strategy forward at pace.”

Moreover, The Telegraph reports that Haas says Arm will help staff move to other jobs.

It’s worth noting that Arm reported an increase in revenue earlier this year, and Haas said it put the company in a good position to keep investing.

However, The Telegraph reports that Arm’s former chief executive, Simon Segars, warned that Arm wouldn’t be able to sustain its current levels of investment if it went public instead of selling to Nvidia.

When reached for comment, an Arm spokesperson told The Telegraph that “Like any business, Arm is continually reviewing its business plan to ensure the company has the right balance between opportunities and cost discipline. Unfortunately, this process includes proposed redundancies across Arm’s global workforce.”

Source: The Telegraph Via: The Verge

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Nvidia reportedly preparing to wind down Arm acquisition

Nvidia reportedly plans to abandon plans to purchase Arm, the SoftBank-owned company behind the ARM chip designs used in a variety of popular tech, like smartphones.

Nvidia announced plans to purchase Arm back in 2020 for a whopping $40 billion USD (about $50.6 billion CAD). However, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter, Nvidia is quietly preparing to abandon the acquisition after failing to win approval for the deal.

Bloomberg reports that Nvidia told partners it doesn’t expect to close the transaction. Meanwhile, SoftBank reportedly plans to prepare for an Arm initial public offering (IPO) as an alternative to the Nvidia takeover.

The acquisition has faced stiff resistance so far, with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) suing to stop the transaction in December. The core argument against Nvidia purchasing Arm is that it would make the company too powerful with control over Arm’s designs.

Despite the reports, both Nvidia and Arm continue to plead with regulators. Moreover, Bloomberg notes that leadership from both Nvidia and Softbank still publicly support the deal, effectively saying let’s wait and see what happens.

Bloomberg goes on to detail that Nvidia has an uphill battle to close the deal, taking on both U.S. and Chinese regulators, rival tech companies and more. Plus, analysts told the publication that if the deal falls through, Nvidia will “probably be fine.” The deal ultimately would have helped Nvidia push into data centre chips, but the company’s already pushing into that sector and will likely continue that push, with or without Arm.

Source: Bloomberg