On July 23, it is estimated that the ARM public relations department is busy. One morning, four news items appeared: "Softbank intends to sell ARM in whole or in part", "Apple does not intend to buy ARM", "Nvidia wants to buy ARM", and "ARM responds not to comment on rumors or speculation". But in fact, things are not so complicated. Let's sort them out roughly.

ARM is now the most important mobile chip design company, formerly Acorn Computer, which was founded in Cambridge, England, in 1978. ARM also developed new processors with Apple in the late 1980s and turned into a chip design company in the 1990s. Apple Newton PDA was equipped with ARM processor.

In the future, we should be familiar with the smart phone era. Now, whether Qualcomm Snapdragon or Apple's A series, almost all mobile phones and tablet computers use ARM architecture. Intel has polished the 14nm environment for many years, and Microsoft has long been trying to bring ARM processors to the notebook platform (only Snapdragon notebooks have never been popular). Apple has also announced that it will use two years to turn the Mac to the self-developed ARM core. The momentum of ARM on the server side is also very strong. In the latest supercomputing ranking, the most powerful supercomputing on the earth now uses the ARM architecture.

The current owner of ARM, SoftBank of Japan, defined the Internet of Things market in 2016 and acquired ARM at a price of $32 billion. At that time, ARM was the largest listed technology company in the UK, and now ARM is even more promising. So why did Softbank sell it?

The answer is surprisingly simple. Because of lack of money. Recently, Softbank is shrinking strategically because several companies invested heavily in it are not able to do well. It has sold some high-quality stocks such as Alibaba and T-Mobile due to cash pressure, and has the idea of selling ARM for cash. However, due to its too important position in the industry, the sale of ARM will be subject to strict antitrust and regulatory review. Bloomberg previously said Nvidia would not enter into a deal with ARM.

But this story was reversed in a Bloomberg report on July 23. The report said that SoftBank of Japan contacted Apple to find out whether Apple was willing to buy ARM. After the preliminary discussion between the two companies, Apple said it did not intend to participate in the bidding and declined to comment because of ARM's licensing requirements and possible regulatory issues. To put it bluntly, Softbank wants to sell ARM, but Apple is not going to buy it.

The theme of the Bloomberg report is that Nvidia wants to acquire ARM and has held talks with SoftBank of Japan. The event was deeply concerned by the technology circle and the investment circle. A few hours later, China Business News reported the official response of ARM: no comment on any "rumors" or "speculation".

This kind of response from ARM can be true or false. After all, official slapping in the face of the technology circle happens from time to time. If it does, ARM's acquisition price may be as high as 100 billion dollars. The last acquisition case in the chip industry that reached this level was the acquisition of Qualcomm by Broadcom in 2018 (later stopped by Trump's ban). If Nvidia succeeds in the acquisition, the balance of the chip industry will be seriously skewed. It is estimated that antitrust and various reviews will not pass. We also tend that ARM is unlikely to sell to Nvidia.

What's more, who knows how many versions and vests of ARM will be cut in the hands of old Huang, who is as skilled as a knife? It's terrible to think about such a future

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