Nvidia Quietly Prepares to Abandon $40 Billion Arm Bid

Ian King, Giles Turner, and Peter Elstrom reporting for Bloomberg:

Nvidia Corp. is quietly preparing to abandon its purchase of Arm Ltd. from SoftBank Group Corp. after making little to no progress in winning approval for the $40 billion chip deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

Nvidia has told partners that it doesn’t expect the transaction to close, according to one person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. SoftBank, meanwhile, is stepping up preparations for an Arm initial public offering as an alternative to the Nvidia takeover, another person said.

Someone at Intel is surely breathing a sigh of relief.

January 26, 2022 ✚ Permalink

Apple Readying ARM-based with 12 Cores Macs for 2021

Mark Gurman, Debby Wu, and Ian King writing for Bloomberg:

[Apple] is working on three of its own Mac processors, known as systems-on-a-chip, based on the A14 processor in the next iPhone. The first of these will be much faster than the processors in the iPhone and iPad, the people said.

Apple is preparing to release at least one Mac with its own chip next year, according to the people.

ARM-based Macs have been rumored for a long time, but Bloomberg’s team has some exciting news:

The first Mac processors will have eight high-performance cores, codenamed Firestorm, and at least four energy-efficient cores, known internally as Icestorm. Apple is exploring Mac processors with more than 12 cores for further in the future, the people said.

Imagine a world where running 12+ cores is common.

April 23, 2020 ✚ Permalink