Owner of UK chip firm Arm reportedly in talks about sale to Nvidia
The UK-based microchip designer Arm is the subject of “advanced talks” aimed at selling the British tech company to a US computing giant.
The computing firm Nvidia is negotiating with Arm’s Japanese owner, SoftBank, to acquire the Cambridgebased group in a deal that could be agreed within weeks, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The news came two weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank was exploring a sale of Arm.
A deal to acquire Arm could be the largest ever in the semiconductor industry, which has been consolidating in recent years as companies seek to diversify and expand. Arm’s technology underpins chips in products including Apple devices.
Arm was sold to SoftBank in 2016 for $32bn (£24bn) and any transaction would value the business at a further premium, the Financial Times reported.
The news will be viewed as a step by SoftBank to improve its finances, just months after the Japanese conglomerate posted its biggest loss ever.
In May, SoftBank reported a $12.7bn annual loss, after announcing a $19.6bn profit the year before.
The results were largely caused by the large bets SoftBank had made on a series of tech-related companies, that had once been considered stars of the startup world, only to have since struggled. Those included WeWork, the office space company, and the ride-hailing service Uber.
Nvidia and Arm declined to comment. SoftBank did not respond to efforts to contact it.