The announcement of the purchase of ARM by Nvidia was a few days ago, in which the Cambridge-based chip design company owned by SoftBank of Japan was sold for $ 40.000 billion.
However, the co-founder of ARM, Herman Hauser, said it would be a disaster if its American rival NVIDIA bought the British company it helped build. Speaking to the BBC Monday, Hauser said: "I think this is an absolute disaster for Cambridge, the UK and Europe."
And now that the Japanese group has agreed to separate from ARM Ltd., one of the largest manufacturers of 32-bit architecture microprocessors and 64-bit RISC-like architecture in the world, Hauser has warned that the operation is not in the public interest, warning that thousands of ARM employees would lose their jobs in Cambridge, Manchester, Belfast and Warwick.
Therefore, warns in the event that NVIDIA "inevitably" decides to relocate ARM headquarters to the United States and make the company a division of NVIDIA.
Hauser published an open letter to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, and posted a petition online asking for help to «Save ARM».
On a second point to oppose the acquisition of the company, Hauser said that NVIDIA would "destroy" ARM's business model, which involves licensing the chip design to about 500 more companies, including several that are in direct competition with the buyer.
NVIDIA has yet to comment on the ARM co-founder's concerns. However, over the weekend, the US company said that ARM's headquarters could remain in Cambridge as part of the deal.
He added that it will create more jobs in the country and build a new artificial intelligence supercomputer powered by NVIDIA, CNBC reported Monday.
However Hauser said the commitments were meaningless if they couldn't be legally enforced.
SoftBank Managing Director Masayoshi Son said "NVIDIA is the perfect partner for ARM."
As for Simon Segars, CEO of ARM, said in a statement that
"ARM and NVIDIA share the same vision and passion that ubiquitous, energy-efficient computing will help solve the world's most common problems, urgent needs, from climate change to healthcare, from agriculture to education," he reported. CNBC.
Hermann Hauser recalled in his petition, previous acquisitions of British companies by American companies, for example, Cadbury bought by Kraft.
Another of the more notable examples of acquisitions in recent years is the London-based artificial intelligence lab DeepMind, which was acquired by Google for just over $ 600 million. Today, DeepMind is widely regarded as one of the world leaders in AI research.
He also recalled ARM's dominance in the smartphone sector. Mr. Hauser's request also warns against GAFAM, the battle between the United States and China, the martial use of American technological dominance by the American president. “ARM is the only UK technology company left, with a dominant position in the field of mobile phone microprocessors. It has a market share of more than 95%.
The UK has suffered from US technological dominance by companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Apple and others, "he wrote.
Hauser also touched on the issue of ARM's "neutrality". "Being able to sell to everyone is one of the fundamental doctrines of ARM's business model," he told the BBC before discussing the case of ARM's current owner, Japanese Softbank. “The advantage of Softbank is that it is not a chip manufacturing company and that
"If ARM becomes a US company, it falls under the CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) regulations," he said. “If hundreds of UK companies that incorporate ARM chips into their products want to sell or export them all over the world, including China, which is an important market, the decision whether they can export them will be made in the White House and not in Downing. Street, ”he told the BBC. "I think it's terrible".
Unheard!
The very idea of coming up with a scenario of that magnitude is overwhelming.
It would make way for an unlimited monopoly.
I think that if you are so worried about the United Kingdom running out of technology companies, you should advocate for Economic Freedom, Free Laissez Faire Market instead of going to beg the State for protectionism, because that's how bad it is for politicians in White House, from Downing Street there will be no exception, politicians who are as deadly as the most ignorant among the rest of humanity are not wise or better men, on matters that do not concern them about industrial, technological and commercial development must be It was because they are not the founders of these companies, nor are they the ones who risk creating and maintaining them, nor are they responsible for the jobs created, so that the decisions fall into the hands of the people who own the companies.