EWhen it comes to technology, the British crown jewels do not sleep quietly in the Tower of London, but are active on the Cambridge campus, within the company ARM. They are therefore easier to steal. This is what Jensen Huang thought, the founding boss of the American Nvidia, one of the world leaders in electronic chips. But the kingdom is fighting back.
On Tuesday, November 16, Nadine Dorries, the Minister of Culture and Digital, announced that the government had asked the competition authority, the Competition & Markets Authority, to launch an in-depth investigation into the acquisition announced by Nvidia, in September 2020, for 50 billion dollars (44 billion euros).
The gendarmes of the competition had emphasized, from 2021, on the very serious risk of penalizing ARM’s customers, in other words most of the chip producers on the planet. This modest company of almost seven thousand people devised a particular architecture of a microprocessor – the brain of a computer or a telephone – very energy efficient.
License sales
Instead of selling its own chips, it chose to commercialize its technology by selling licenses. They can be found in smartphones, computers, televisions, data centers and even self-driving cars. Today it is a form of “Switzerland of electronics”, a partner of all manufacturers in the sector. The takeover by one of its large customers therefore poses serious problems for others. This is why the European and Chinese competition authorities are also examining this transaction.
Boris Johnson’s cabinet admits such operation could affect national security
The concern arises especially for the United Kingdom, which does not have, in this field, other company having such a world supremacy. However, when the Japanese investment fund SoftBank took control of the company in July 2016, the post-referendum on Brexit government bulged its chest, seeing in this giant acquisition the confirmation of the British attractiveness finally released. of the European yoke. Now Boris Johnson’s cabinet recognizes that such an operation could affect national security. The current atmosphere is obviously less euphoric than that which reigned at the end of 2016 among the anti-Europeans of the country.
She also emphasizes that the sale of a strategic firm to a distant investment fund is always risky. Despite his promises of loyalty, Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank, did not resist such a generous offer, in the face of his group’s difficulties. He won’t get rid of his English jewel so easily.