Arm’s £30bn takeover by Nvidia will ‘destroy its business model’

Arm’s £30bn takeover by US rival Nvidia will put its neutrality and sales at risk, tech firm’s founder warns

The £30billion takeover of Arm by US rival Nvidia will ‘destroy’ its business model, the company’s founder has warned.

Hermann Hauser, who co-founded the British tech business in 1999, said the firm’s neutrality would be put at risk and its sales could be restricted if Nvidia is allowed to buy it.

Nvidia, a San Francisco-based chip-maker, announced yesterday that it had agreed to buy Arm from its current owner Softbank.

Hermann Hauser, who co-founded Arm in 1999, said the firm’s neutrality would be put at risk and its sales could be restricted if Nvidia is allowed to buy it

While Arm’s 3,000 UK workers are worrying about jobs, Hauser claims that the takeover will ruin the firm’s business entirely.

He describes the company as the ‘Switzerland’ of chip-makers, in that it designs neutral products that customers can customise to their needs.

But many of Arm’s customers are competitors of Nvidia, and Hauser thinks this will present a conflict of interest.

He said: ‘There’s a monopolies problem, and that’s bad enough.’

But he also thinks that the sale of Arm to a US firm could pose politically motivated problems.

He called it an issue of ‘economic sovereignty’ for the UK, and said: ‘The decision over whether Arm are allowed to export will be made in the White House and not Downing Street.’

Daniel Zeichner, Labour MP for Cambridge where Arm is based, said: ‘We have got potentially huge leverage [in the tech industry] and we are letting it slip from our grasp.’

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