Chinese technology companies including Huawei have expressed strong concerns to local regulators about Nvidia’s proposed acquisition of ARM, potentially jeopardising the $40-billion semiconductor deal.
The story of TSMC’s industry dominance steamed ahead unabated on Thursday, with record earnings on the back of booming demand for chips used in smartphones and servers.
Battles unfolding on several continents over who profits from connected cars, smart homes and robotic surgery may dwarf the size and scope of the tech industry’s first worldwide patent war – the one over smartphones.
Nvidia’s record deal to buy ARM will encounter major hurdles from regulators in countries sparring over trade and customers concerned the transaction will limit competition and unfairly favour ARM’s future owner.
If Nvidia is able to pull off its blockbuster acquisition of premier chip designer ARM, the deal may be the final piece it needs to dominate the industry for a generation.
A good decade after Nokia’s mobile phone business suffered a fatal blow at the hands of the iPhone, the Finnish company is still feeding off a lucrative asset that it salvaged from the wreckage.
Qualcomm is ramping up its effort to put 5G mobile phones within reach of billions of people and backing new connected laptops aimed at the growing number of people working at home.
Ramped-up US restrictions on Huawei are likely to cut off the Chinese smartphone maker’s access to even off-the-shelf chips and disrupt the global tech supply chain once again, executives and experts cautioned.
HMD Global, the maker of Nokia-branded smartphones, has secured $230-million of investment from partners including Google and Qualcomm to help accelerate its development of 5G devices.
Intel’s decision to consider outsourcing manufacturing heralds the end of an era in which the company, and the US, dominated the semiconductor industry.