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Arm China Has Gone Rogue

semianalysis.substack.com

31–40 of 686 posts

Re: Arm China Has Gone Rogue

#31
post #5

This is the standard Chinese operating model, as I understand it. Accept foreign subsidiary investment on condition of 51% Chinese ownership, transfer the technology, then turn around and compete with the parent. It was a similar story with maglev trains.

Interesting that it's not the 51% (and I think some of the 51% may be held by non Chinese investors) that has been key but rather Allen Wu having the seal - so even without control of the board he's still been able to get control of the company.

Not really. The key here is that he needed to maintain legality, by contesting the ruling of the board and suing, he can now argue he is still the boss and keep the seal till chinese justice deliberates.

Re: Arm China Has Gone Rogue

#32
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL but I would assume they would infringe many Arm patents if sold outside of China.

Author here. They specifically said they are not working with foreign companies. While they have exclusive rights to arm architecture in china, they cannot do anything outside china.

You can put your hands on Zhaoxin boards in the west despite those also ostensibly being China only as well.

And software bifurcation is the real problem, and would be handled at layer not exclusive to China.

Re: Arm China Has Gone Rogue

#33
I'm not sure what anyone expected when we cut China off of chip IP. We did the same thing in the US, we had a policy of just straight up encouraging people to memorize patents before they immigrated over, and paying for their family to immigrate with them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Slater

Re: Arm China Has Gone Rogue

#35
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is also not safe, from a business perspective, to ignore China altogether. Very difficult situation indeed.

Unless by "safe" you mean "maximizing profits at all costs" I disagree.

Maximizing short term profits.

Re: Arm China Has Gone Rogue

#37
post #15
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Softbank held 49%. "SoftBank subsidiary sold a 51% stake of the company to a consortium of Chinese investors for paltry $775M."

Of course it was sold for a paltry sum.

Does anyone think they were not nudged to sell to local state-designated champ and had one serious candidate (with the CCP pulling the strings behind the scene)?

Re: Arm China Has Gone Rogue

#38

Are there examples of mainland-grown IP/technology breakthroughs that resulted from such "transfers"? It seems so far that this does enable China to further catch up and massively expand the use of the captured technology, but are there instances of them qualitatively surpassing it? I'm sure China has enough resources for advancements beyond replication, as much as it's capable of showcasing something to the rest of…

Some of the most competitive products in some categories are from China, for example in drones.

It's only a matter of time until they work their way up the chain.

Remember the Tim Cook quote how it's difficult to fill a room with machinists in US, while in China you can fill 3 football fields with them.

Re: Arm China Has Gone Rogue

#39

Perhaps, as Scott Adams has said, "It is not safe to do business in China."

It is also not safe, from a business perspective, to ignore China altogether. Very difficult situation indeed.

How much money is "enough" is the problem. Companies seem to always choose "all the money" but I'm not sure that is always wise. What's wrong with doing work you are proud of and paying your employees a fair wage? It seems to always come back to the stock price and how it always has to go up for publicly traded companies.

Re: Arm China Has Gone Rogue

#40
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless by "safe" you mean "maximizing profits at all costs" I disagree.

Maximizing short term profits.

CEOs answer to shareholders. Shareholders want returns. You want returns for your own investments and so do I.
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