San Francisco: NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) has announced a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire Arm Limited from SBG and therefore the SoftBank Vision Fund (together, “SoftBank”) in a transaction valued at $40 billion. The transaction is predicted to be immediately accretive to NVIDIA’s non-GAAP margin of profit and non-GAAP earnings per share. It aims to make a premier computing company for the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
It will expand Arm’s R&D presence in Cambridge, UK, by establishing a world-class AI research and education center, and building an Arm/NVIDIA-powered AI supercomputer for groundbreaking research
Jensen Huang, founder, and CEO of NVIDIA said, “AI is that 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.”
SoftBank will remain committed to ARM's long-term success through its ownership stake in NVIDIA, expected to be under 10 percent, the corporate said in a statement late on September 13.
“Simon Segars and his team at Arm have built an unprecedented company that's 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 world,” Huang said.
“This combination has tremendous benefits for both companies, our customers, and therefore the industry. For Arm’s ecosystem, the combination will turbocharge Arm’s R&D capacity and expand its IP portfolio with NVIDIA’s world-leading GPU and AI technology.
“Arm will remain headquartered in Cambridge. We’ll expand on this great site and build a world-class AI research center, supporting developments in healthcare, life sciences, robotics, self-driving cars and other fields. And, to attract researchers and scientists from the U.K. and around the world to conduct groundbreaking work, NVIDIA will build a state-of-the-art AI supercomputer, powered by Arm CPUs. Arm Cambridge will be a world-class technology centre. “NVIDIA is that the perfect partner for Arm,” said Masayoshi Son, chairman, and CEO of SBG.
- Under the terms of the transaction, NVIDIA will pay SoftBank a total of $21.5 billion in common stock shares and $12 billion in cash, which incorporates $2 billion payable at signing.
- SoftBank may receive up to $5 billion in cash or common stock shares under an earn-out construct. NVIDIA will also issue $1.5 billion in equity to Arm employees.
“Arm and NVIDIA share a vision and passion that ubiquitous, energy-efficient computing will help address the world’s most pressing issues from global climate change to healthcare, from agriculture to education,” said Simon Segars, CEO of Arm.
NVIDIA will conduct a webcast at 5:30 a.m. PT on Monday, September 14, to discuss the transaction.
Also Read: New standards for AI clinical trials will help spot snake oil and hype
