NVIDIA to acquire Arm for $40 billion

NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) have announced a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire ArmLimited from SBG and the SoftBank Vision Fund (together, “SoftBank”) in a transaction valued at $40 billion. The transactionis expected to be immediately accretive to NVIDIA’s non-GAAP gross margin and non-GAAP earnings per share.

The combination brings together NVIDIA’s leading AI computing platform with Arm’s vast ecosystem to create the premiercomputing company for the age of artificial intelligence, accelerating innovation while expanding into large, high-growthmarkets. SoftBank will remain committed to Arm’s long-term success through its ownership stake in NVIDIA, expected to beunder 10 percent.

“AI is the most powerful technology force of our time and has launched a new wave of computing,” said Jensen Huang,founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “In the years ahead, trillions of computers running AI will create a new internet-of-things that isthousands of times larger than today’s internet-of-people. Our combination will create a company fabulously positioned forthe age of AI.

“Simon Segars and his team at Arm have built an extraordinary company that is contributing to nearly every technologymarket in the world. Uniting NVIDIA’s AI computing capabilities with the vast ecosystem of Arm’s CPU, we can advancecomputing from the cloud, smartphones, PCs, self-driving cars and robotics, to edge IoT, and expand AI computing to everycorner of the globe.

“This combination has tremendous benefits for both companies, our customers, and the industry. For Arm’s ecosystem, the combination will turbocharge Arm’s R&D capacity and expand its IP portfolio with NVIDIA’s world-leading GPU and AItechnology.“

Arm will remain headquartered in Cambridge. We will expand on this great site and build a world-class AI research facility,supporting developments in healthcare, life sciences, robotics, self-driving cars and other fields. And, to attract researchersand scientists from the U.K. and around the world to conduct groundbreaking work, NVIDIA will build a state-of-the-art AIsupercomputer, powered by Arm CPUs. Arm Cambridge will be a world-class technology center.”

“NVIDIA is the perfect partner for Arm,” said Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SBG. “Since acquiring Arm, we havehonored our commitments and invested heavily in people, technology and R&D, thereby expanding the business into newareas with high growth potential. Joining forces with a world leader in technology innovation creates new and excitingopportunities for Arm. This is a compelling combination that projects Arm, Cambridge and the U.K. to the forefront of some ofthe most exciting technological innovations of our time and is why SoftBank is excited to invest in Arm’s long-term successas a major shareholder in NVIDIA. We look forward to supporting the continued success of the combined business.”

“Arm and NVIDIA share a vision and passion that ubiquitous, energy-efficient computing will help address the world’s mostpressing issues from climate change to healthcare, from agriculture to education,” said Simon Segars, CEO of Arm.“Delivering on this vision requires new approaches to hardware and software and a long-term commitment to research anddevelopment. By bringing together the technical strengths of our two companies we can accelerate our progress and createnew solutions that will enable a global ecosystem of innovators. My management team and I are excited to be joining NVIDIAso we can write this next chapter together.”