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☆ Qualcomm has good reasons to bid for Intel — but a takeover probably won't happen
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-23 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewIf Qualcomm sees it through, its takeover bid of Intel would likely be the biggest in Silicon Valley history. The possibility of Intel handing its 56-year history over to a younger rival emerged last week after several reports said that California-based semiconductor firm Qualcomm had made a takeover approach. That said, not everyone is convinced that Qualcomm needs Intel — or that a buyout would be a good idea for either company. My industry survey also indicates that Qualcomm is currently in takeover talks with Intel. A Qualcomm bid for Intel could face similar regulatory obstacles to the takeover attempt Nvidia made for Arm in 2020 and later abandoned in 2022.

Persons: —, Qualcomm's, Pat Gelsinger, Patrick Moorhead, Richard Windsor, Chi Kuo, 錤, Qualcomm Organizations: Service, Qualcomm, Intel, Business, Nvidia, Financial Times, CNBC, Amazon Web, Intel Foundry, Radio Free Mobile, International Securities, Microsoft, Bloomberg Locations: Silicon Valley, California, Europe, Taiwan

☆ SoftBank's Arm to reportedly launch AI chips by 2025 to capture explosive demand
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Sheila Chiang | In Sheilachiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

SoftBank Group subsidiary Arm is planning to launch artificial intelligence chips by next year, according to a Nikkei Asia report, as the battle for AI chip dominance intensifies. SoftBank is in discussion with contract manufacturers including Taiwan's TSMC to produce the AI chips, the report added. Arm designs the fundamental architecture upon which the chips are built. The company will bear the initial development costs of the AI chips, which could reach "hundreds of billions of yen," according to the report. After a mass-production system has been set up, Arm's AI chip business could be "spun off and placed under SoftBank."

Persons: SoftBank, Taiwan's Organizations: SoftBank, Nikkei, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Nasdaq Locations: Krakow, Poland, Nikkei Asia

☆ Swarms of drones are a rising threat to the US homeland, and law enforcement isn't ready
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

RAND focused on various ways that terrorists inside the US could wreak havoc with drone swarms. Current technology allows unmanned aircraft to be employed in what RAND terms "surrogate swarm technology," in which formations are only loosely coordinated. James Newsome/US ArmyNations such as America and China are busy developing military drone swarms. Such technology is becoming available to the public: the FAA has already allowed limited use of drone swarms to spray crops. Thus the question isn't if intelligent drone swarms become a domestic security threat, but when.

Persons: —, What's, Alfred Hitchcock's, James Newsome, Daniel Gerstein, Gerstein, isn't, Michael Peck Organizations: Service, RAND Corp, Business, RAND's Homeland, Analysis, Department of Homeland Security, RAND, Kremlin, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Threat Systems Management Office, US Army Nations, FAA, Defense, Foreign Policy, Rutgers Univ, Twitter, LinkedIn Locations: Afghanistan, Ukraine, Russia, America, China, North Carolina, Forbes

☆ Arm is at the forefront of the AI revolution. Here's how it's powering billions of devices, from smartphones to cloud servers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Arm With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In 1990, Arm (NASDAQ: ARM), then a startup based in Cambridge, UK, filled the void with high-performance, power-efficient, and small form-factor processor technology for battery-run products. The processor architecture was so robust that AI functions could be built into the devices themselves – voice, touch, and facial recognition. Delivering the right compute, from cloud to edgeEnormous cloud data centers process most of the world's big AI workloads today because they can do so more efficiently at scale. Arm technology is also designed to follow and support AI workloads as they increasingly get distributed outside the cloud to edge devices. As the most pervasive CPU architecture ever, Arm is at the forefront of the AI/ML revolution, powering billions of devices from smartphones to cloud servers.

Persons: Grace Hopper, We're Organizations: NASDAQ, ARM, Intel, NVIDIA, Insider Studios Locations: Cambridge, UK

☆ Jim Cramer says Intel's solid quarter and big stock pop signal PCs might be back
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The major supplier of semiconductors that power PCs beat earnings estimates and issued strong revenue guidance, sending shares roughly 10% higher on Friday. "They're winning a lot of business and there should be some new product," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." If you like this story, sign up for Jim Cramer's Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter for free. AMD and Intel dominate the market for central processing units, or CPUs, that are the brains of PCs. There was a report this week, however, that Nvidia might be looking to leverage its alliance with Arm Holdings (ARM) to make CPUs.

Persons: Jim Cramer, They're, Cramer, Jim Cramer's, Jim Organizations: Intel, Devices, AMD, Cramer's, Nvidia, Arm Holdings, Apple

☆ Where we stand on Nvidia's latest China update and its potential foray into a new processor market
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | In Kevinstankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The company commands a dominant position in the market for chips used in AI model training. But the question that still lingers in our minds is whether that growth can be substantial enough to meet the lofty, multiyear expectations that became baked into Nvidia's stock price in recent months. Based on the Reuters report, the potential boost to revenue wouldn't arrive for more than a year, and it's unclear what Nvidia's market share would look like then. Another reason for tempered enthusiasm: The gross margins on PC CPUs are typically smaller than Nvidia's data-center chips, a market in which the company has pricing power. Bottom line Nvidia's potential foray in PC CPUs is a development that we'll continue to monitor, but it doesn't put to rest longer-term questions around China.

Persons: Jim Cramer, Jim, Biden, Washington's, Grace Hopper superchip, it's, doesn't, Jim Cramer's, Tyrone Siu Organizations: Nvidia, of Commerce, Reuters, Microsoft, Arm Holdings, Intel, Devices, AMD, Bank of America, Apple, Qualcomm, CNBC, Nvidia Corporation Locations: China, Silicon Valley, U.S, Taipei, Taiwan

☆ CNBC Daily Open: Oil deals and awaiting tech earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Shreyashi Sanyal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on April 26, 2023 in New York City. This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Investors awaited the release of corporate earnings from tech giants including Alphabet and Microsoft. Another oil mega-mergerChevron on Monday said it agreed to buy Hess for $53 billion in stock.

Persons: Hess, Tesla, Elon, Goldman Sachs Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, CNBC, Nasdaq, Microsoft, European Central, Chevron, U.S, Exxon Mobil, Natural Resources, Exxon, Nvidia, Arm Holdings, Reuters, Intel, Devices, U.S . Department of Justice, Elon Musk's, Federal Reserve Locations: New York City, Guyana

Nvidia and AMD could sell PC chips as soon as 2025, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Nvidia and AMD would join Qualcomm (QCOM.O), which has been making Arm-based chips for laptops since 2016. Nvidia spokesperson Ken Brown, AMD spokesperson Brandi Marina, Arm spokesperson Kristen Ray and Microsoft spokesperson Pete Wootton all declined to comment. Executives at Microsoft have observed how efficient Apple’s Arm-based chips are, including with AI processing, and desire to attain similar performance, one of the sources said. AMD's entry into the Arm-based PC market was earlier reported by chip-focused publication SemiAccurate.

Persons: Intel’s, Ken Brown, Brandi Marina, Kristen Ray, Pete Wootton, ”, Jay Goldberg, Will Moss, Stephen Nellis, Max A, Kenneth Li, Josie Kao Organizations: NVIDIA, Handout, REUTERS, Nvidia, Arm Holdings, Reuters, Windows, Apple, IDC, Devices, AMD, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Intel, D2D, Software, Thomson Locations: Santa Clara , California, San Francisco

☆ Oracle spends more than $100 million on Ampere chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSept 22 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) agreed to prepay $104.1 million for processor chips made by startup Ampere Computing, according to Oracle's proxy statement filed on Friday. Oracle also invested $400 million in Ampere through a convertible note in its fiscal 2023, the proxy said. Ampere builds custom server chips based on Arm technology that compete with designs produced by Intel (INTC.O) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), which use X86. Oracle has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Ampere since it was founded, according to filings. Amazon.com makes its own server chips that compete with Ampere, and Google makes its own artificial intelligence processors.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, Oracle, Ampere, Ampere –, Max A, David Gregorio, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Oracle Corporation, New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, Oracle Corp, Ampere, Intel, Devices, Oracle, Amazon.com, Google, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, Ampere, San Francisco

SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto and Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas pose for a photo at the Nasdaq MarketSite on September 14, 2023 in New York City. Shares of chip design company Arm Holdings started trading on the Nasdaq Thursday morning in a long-anticipated IPO at a share price of $56.10, valuing the company at $59.9 billion. Arm Holdings sold around 95.5 million shares on the Nasdaq. Softbank, which took the company private in 2016, will control around 90% of Arm's shares outstanding. At a $54 billion valuation, Arm's price-to-earnings multiple would be about 104 based on the most recent fiscal year profit.

Persons: Yoshimitsu Goto, Rene Haas, Arm, Masayoshi Son Organizations: Arm, Nasdaq, Arm Holdings, Apple, Google, Samsung, CNBC Locations: New York City, British

☆ Arm’s changing business model is wildcard for IPO
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Karen Kwok | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The other is royalty revenue, which is linked to how many products containing Arm technology that a customer eventually sells. Rather than selling licenses for specific chip designs and hoping the royalty revenue eventually flows, it is offering so-called total access agreements. First, Amazon’s engineers are more likely to experiment with Arm’s intellectual property and therefore use it in the future, eventually boosting royalty revenue. The company’s revenue fell 1% to $2.7 billion in the financial year to March 31. In the most recent quarter, which ended on June 30, Arm’s revenue fell by more than 2% year-on-year to $675 million.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Rene Haas, Haas, lumpy, Liam Proud, Oliver Taslic Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, SoftBank, Apple, Samsung Electronics, Nvidia, Microsoft, Infineon Technologies, U.S, Nasdaq, Thomson Locations: British

Virtually all of that revenue comes from Arm China, an independent entity that has the exclusive rights to distribute Arm's technology in the country. That makes Arm China, not better-known names like Apple (AAPL.O) or Qualcomm (QCOM.O), Arm's largest customer. And this customer has a history of late payments and presents "significant risks" to Arm's business, according to its filing. HISTORY OF LATE PAYMENTSArm said in its filings that "in the past, we have received late payments from Arm China and have had to expend company resources to obtain payments from Arm China." In its filing, it said cash from operating activities increased by $281 million in its most recent fiscal year, driven mostly by $713 million in collections from Arm China, though that was partly offset by cash owed to Arm China.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, SoftBank, Allen Wu, Wu, Stewart Randall, Yelin, Max A, Cherney, Stephen Nellis, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Arm Holdings, U.S, Softbank Group Corp, Apple, Qualcomm, SoftBank, Arm Technology, Co, Hopu Investments, Chief, longtime, Hopu Investment, Arm, San, Thomson Locations: China, Arm China, U.S, Shanghai, Yelin Mo, Beijing, San Francisco

☆ Arm IPO to put SoftBank's AI hard sell to the test
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Anton Bridge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A smartphone with a displayed Arm Ltd logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. The billionaire also said he has spent months creating hundreds of inventions with AI-powered ChatGPT that he believes can be realised through Arm. Analysts also caution that Arm does not sit at the centre of the AI boom but is more AI-adjacent. Nvidia has developed a "superchip" for use in data centres - the GH200, which contains CPUs based on Arm architecture. Many SoftBank portfolio companies will embrace and apply generative AI but that does not make them AI companies," said Victor Galliano of Galliano's Latin Notes, who publishes on Smartkarma.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Masayoshi Son, Son, SoftBank, Kirk Boodry, it's, Boodry, Rolf Bulk, Victor Galliano, Anton Bridge, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, SoftBank, Nasdaq, SoftBank Group, Vision Fund, Astris Advisory, Fund, Nvidia, New, Research, Qualcomm, Apple, Google, Thomson Locations: Astris Advisory Japan, Saudi

☆ Arm, the Chip Designer, Files for an I.P.O. Expected to Be Among the Largest
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Santul Nerkar | Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Why It MattersThe move will provide Arm’s parent company, SoftBank, with more capital to further invest in start-ups. In the filing, Arm said more than 30 billion Arm-manufactured chips were shipped last fiscal year. But Arm technology is also found in myriad other products, including home appliances, cars and industrial equipment. Arm was a public company until 2016, when SoftBank bought it for $32 billion. SoftBank has taken huge losses since that failed acquisition, posting a $3.3 billion loss in this year’s first quarter.

Persons: Masayoshi Son, SoftBank, Rene Haas Organizations: Apple, Nvidia, Vision

Arm technology powers most global smartphones and the company counts Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) as customers. The China business is the exclusive distributor of Arm chip technology in China and develops and sells its own chip designs based on Arm. In 2021, the China business paid Arm about $500 million, the two sources said. “The Arm Ltd IP business part of Arm China is performing very well and we are positioned for continued growth going forward. SoftBank and Arm China did not respond to requests for comment.

Arm technology powers most global smartphones and the company counts Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) as customers. The China business is the exclusive distributor of Arm chip technology in China and develops and sells its own chip designs based on Arm. “The Arm Ltd IP business part of Arm China is performing very well and we are positioned for continued growth going forward. SoftBank and Arm China did not respond to requests for comment. Wu is credited with expanding the China business, according to two sources familiar with the company.

The layoffs come as SoftBank tries to set up a public listing for Arm this year. Before the layoffs, Arm China had about 700 employees; there were no layoffs last year when parent Arm Ltd had global layoffs affecting up to 15% of its workforce, according to one of the sources. Arm China declined to comment. Arm China is the exclusive distributor of Arm licenses in China. One of the sources said some customers are concerned about Arm potentially changing how it charges royalties, as well as U.S.-China geopolitical tensions that could cut off access to Arm technology.

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