NVIDIA’s attempted purchase of ARM was shaping up to be one of the most important operations within the technology sector, but it was also one of the most controversial for all the issues it raised in terms of free competition. It is perfectly understandable since, in the end, the ARM architecture plays a very important role in many sectorsand completely dominates the smartphone market.
Many companies depend on the licenses they have signed with ARM to maintain their “status quo”, among which we can mention such important names as Qualcomm and Apple, and the possible purchase of this by a giant like NVIDIA most of those giants didn’t like it at allbecause they feared that, in the not too distant future, they would have to face some type of restriction, or limitation, that would prevent or complicate their access to said architecture.
To understand it, a couple of simple examples are enough. without arm, Apple could not continue designing its SoCs A-series, used in its mobile devices, and it couldn’t continue to design its M1-series chips, used in its Macs and MacBooks. Qualcomm couldn’t go ahead with its Snapdragon chips either.
We know that, despite the failed attempt to buy ARM, NVIDIA’s results have been very positive, and that the company maintains an enviable position in the technology sector, but how has this affected the company’s strategy in the medium and long term? term? NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has clarified this in a recent interview with VentureBeat, and he has been very clear: nothing has changedand it has not done so precisely because in the end they have not been able to buy ARM.
In short, NVIDIA’s strategy remains unchanged. They continue betting on the creation of high-performance solutions in three main areas: CPUs, GPUs and DPUs (data processing units), and also maintain their 20 year license with ARMwhich means that they will continue to use this architecture in the processors that accompany their different SoCs, including the Tegra series.
On the other hand, Jensen also confirmed that use RISC-V architecture, and that it is present in different areas, such as your GPUs. Thus, for example, this architecture is used in system controllers, the Bluefield GPU, which comes with a RISC-V-based acceleration engine and which, in general, is used as a programmable engine almost always because “that’s where it makes sense” . For NVIDIA nothing has changed, this is a good sign, and a clear sign that the company is a giant that does not need acquisitions to continue growing.
