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Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

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Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#21

Post by sgt101 »

klelatti wrote: post #13

I've been struggling to understand why Nvidia's takeover of Arm might be a UK national security issue (the competition case is quite clear but separate). I'm guessing though that Arm collaborates with UK intelligence agencies and that that collaboration might be jeopardised with the Nvidia takeover (in a way that it was not with the Softbank takeover). Does anyone have any further insights?

I think it's a national capability to do things move - probably sharpened by the realization (in the middle of the pandemic) that not everyone was a friend of the UK and would quite happily watch us drown while sitting round singing songs about how many lifebelts they had.

Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#22

Post by klelatti »

sgt101 wrote: post #21
klelatti wrote: post #13

I've been struggling to understand why Nvidia's takeover of Arm might be a UK national security issue (the competition case is quite clear but separate). I'm guessing though that Arm collaborates with UK intelligence agencies and that that collaboration might be jeopardised with the Nvidia takeover (in a way that it was not with the Softbank takeover). Does anyone have any further insights?

I think it's a national capability to do things move - probably sharpened by the realization (in the middle of the pandemic) that not everyone was a friend of the UK and would quite happily watch us drown while sitting round singing songs about how many lifebelts they had.

I'm sceptical about that - we don't own much technology IP and we're hugely reliant on the US already.

I think it's a much more specific security issue.

Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#23

Post by lucian1900 »

DerDangDerDang wrote: post #6
jack_riminton wrote: post #3

Does this infer that only a UK based company can buy them from now on? How would this affect their share price if they'd go public?

No. It just means Nvidia need to give some kickbacks to the fantastically corrupt ruling party. Really hard to see this as anything other than a shakedown attempt by people who don’t understand that you can’t keep an ip licensing company inside national borders for long.

You may be right about the reason. Or maybe it’s something to do with positioning between US and EU.

The correct move would be to nationalise ARM and build a fab, but the Tories are very unlikely to do that.

Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#24

Post by toxik »

wAYshzRtw wrote: post #10

> Under the powers set out in the Enterprise Act 2002, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is able to intervene on national security grounds. > The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will prepare a report on the competition and national security aspects of the proposed transaction. So it's being framed as a national security threat, interesting.

This is actually a fairly common way to justify protectionist and interventionist policy. It's "think of the children" in a new disguise, really.

But such is policy making. You have to justify your policy with what is popular, not with the truth. For example: lax covid restrictions justified because we can't be sure it'll work, vs. because we know that it'll hurt the economy.

Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#25

Post by croes »

toyg wrote: post #11

“On national security grounds”...? Why would NVidia, a US corp, be more of a security problem than a Japanese one? If it’s just a matter of commercial overreliance on a single supplier, I find the “National security” bit to be somewhat specious.

Are Snowden and his reveals already forgotten?

Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#26

Post by DrBazza »

Seems a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. This should have happened when Softbank came around.

'National security grounds' is interesting. It could simply be that the UK is no longer part of the EU and this is belatedly considered a strategic national asset (i.e. a foot in the game of chip design), vs. GCHQ and ARM working together somehow.

Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#27

Post by sgt101 »

klelatti wrote: post #22
sgt101 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a national capability to do things move - probably sharpened by the realization (in the middle of the pandemic) that not everyone was a friend of the UK and would quite happily watch us drown while sitting round singing songs about how many lifebelts they had.

I'm sceptical about that - we don't own much technology IP and we're hugely reliant on the US already. I think it's a much more specific security issue.

I think that the capability to design a modern CPU is pretty essential for future defence independence. I think that ARM represents a good chunk of the UKs claim to be able to do that. If the UK wants a share of future US programs of all sorts then it needs to be able to make these claims - or face must less generous terms.

Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#28

Post by Redoubts »

croes wrote: post #25
toyg wrote: post #11

“On national security grounds”...? Why would NVidia, a US corp, be more of a security problem than a Japanese one? If it’s just a matter of commercial overreliance on a single supplier, I find the “National security” bit to be somewhat specious.

Are Snowden and his reveals already forgotten?

Not sure what you mean, he revealed the UK gov was a willing co-conspirator.

Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#29

Post by wAYshzRtw »

toxik wrote: post #24
wAYshzRtw wrote: post #10

> Under the powers set out in the Enterprise Act 2002, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is able to intervene on national security grounds. > The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will prepare a report on the competition and national security aspects of the proposed transaction. So it's being framed as a national security threat, interesting.

This is actually a fairly common way to justify protectionist and interventionist policy. It's "think of the children" in a new disguise, really. But such is policy making. You have to justify your policy with what is popular, not with the truth. For example: lax covid restrictions justified because we can't be sure it'll work, vs. because we know that it'll hurt the economy.

Makes sense. I think it's going to be a lot more difficult for Nvidia to argue against this, rather than if the intervention had been about competition or something.

Re: Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

#30

Post by ericmay »

mrweasel wrote: post #16
bencollier49 wrote: post #2

They blatantly ought to have done this for the original sale. Better late than never, I suppose.

I understand objecting, but for security reasons? A better argument would be that Nvidia gains serious power over companies who are currently ARM customer and Nvidia competitors. Perhaps the UK want to be able to use ARM designs for domestic chips in the future, without being dependent on an American company, but yeah, then they should have objected when a Japanese company bought ARM as well.

> but for security reasons?

Seems to be the strongest/easiest route to go to justify blocking it. The whole national security angle and all.

> then they should have objected when a Japanese company bought ARM as well

I have to imagine this was a bit of sleeping at the wheel. I'm not sure though.

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