Nvidia Hopes for Regulatory OK of Arm Deal in ‘Under 18 Months’

Nvidia’s $40 billion agreement to buy Arm from Softbank (see 2009140053) “positions us in the right way for the next wave of computing” in the age of artificial intelligence, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told a Deutsche Bank virtual conference Monday. Nvidia hopes to expand Arm’s patent portfolio into large “end markets,” including mobile and PCs, and to “turbocharge” the pace of Arm’s server CPU road map, she said. “This gives us the ability to reach even a larger overall developer community.” Nvidia estimates 20 billion devices with Arm-licensed technology are used globally, said Kress. Nvidia hopes it can win regulatory approval in “under 18 months,” she said. “I think the overall regulatory process will move through quite well. We believe the deal, in total, is pretty much pro-competitive.”