DEAL Galaxy S24 FE, Galaxy Watch 7. Subscribe today and be the first to learn about One 7 beta!

SamMobile has affiliate and sponsored partnerships. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn a commission.

News For You
News For You
Notifications

Samsung’s acquisition of ARM highly unlikely because of antitrust issues

Business
By 

Last updated: September 21st, 2022 at 14:02 UTC+02:00

The latest report by BusinessKorea suggests that Samsung won't be interested in the race to acquire ARM for multiple reasons. Apparently, Nvidia failed to acquire ARM, and it was touted that Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Qualcomm, and Intel would be next in line to complete the UK chip designer's acquisition. While ARM's scope of business is perfectly aligned with the weak points of the South Korean giant, an acquisition by Samsung Electronics is rather unlikely.

ARM is in the business of design, packaging, and back-end processes of chip making, whereas companies like Samsung are more focused on manufacturing. However, industry sources say that “Samsung Electronics, in particular, is doing foundry business with chip designers as main clients, which means its ARM acquisition is unlikely to be as useful as thought.” Sources also add that global fabless companies that are or have designed chips with ARM based on royalty payments may stop doing business with Samsung Electronics for fear of trade secret exposure.

A consortium could acquire ARM instead

Antitrust issues are also one of the main reasons why Samsung may pull out of this race for the ARM acquisition, the same reasons because of which Nvidia failed to complete the transaction. The UK government still regards the “cross-border acquisition of ARM as tech leak and national security threat.” Another reason could be the steep price, which was $40 billion during Nvidia's bid and has now jumped to $60 billion recently.

For all these reasons, Samsung may back out of this acquisition. Industry sources also mention the possibility of a consortium acquiring ARM instead of a single company. But this also isn't as smooth as it may sound, because the antitrust issues aren't solved at all, and the interests of all consortium members need to be coordinated.

Business ARMIntelKoreaNvidiaQualcommSK HynixUK
Galaxy AI summarized

Scroll for more related content
News For You

You might also like

Google to follow Samsung’s lead by using custom chips for smartwatches

Google to follow Samsung’s lead by using custom chips for smartwatches

Qualcomm was way too slow in bringing advanced chips for smartwatches, and that is when Apple took a huge leap forward. Samsung didn't depend on Qualcomm and developed in-house Exynos chips for Galaxy Watches. While Google switched from Exynos to Snapdragon chips for second and third-generation Pixel Watches, it could switch to in-house chips in […]

  • By Abid Iqbal Shaik
  • 1 day ago
One UI 7 said to be biggest improvement in Samsung’s history

One UI 7 said to be biggest improvement in Samsung’s history

Samsung was expected to release the Android 15-based One UI 7.0 beta update in late July 2024, but it was delayed. It still hasn't been released, and the word is that the update won't be released for quite some time. However, this delay could be a boon for all Samsung users, as One UI 7.0 […]

  • By Asif Iqbal Shaik
  • 2 days ago
Want to catch up on Snapdragon 8 Elite? Here’s our full overview

Want to catch up on Snapdragon 8 Elite? Here’s our full overview

If you've been with us since the beginning of the week, you likely have an idea of just how crazy Qualcomm's new chip is. We had the opportunity to attend Snapdragon Summit 2024 in Hawaii and got all the information we could from Qualcomm about the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. We talked about it a […]

  • By Mihai Matei
  • 5 days ago
Qualcomm CMO sheds light on the regional co-marketing wins with Samsung

Qualcomm CMO sheds light on the regional co-marketing wins with Samsung

Samsung and Qualcomm both attach a lot of importance to their longstanding partnership, evidenced by the fact that the head of Samsung's mobile division, TM Roh, made an in-person appearance on stage during the ongoing Snapdragon Summit 2024, where Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite. “We love Samsung,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said as he […]

  • By Adnan Farooqui
  • 6 days ago
Snapdragon 8 Elite Geekbench, other benchmarks put gains in perspective

Snapdragon 8 Elite Geekbench, other benchmarks put gains in perspective

Qualcomm officially announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset earlier this week at the ongoing Snapdragon Summit 2024 in Maui, Hawaii. It's a big launch for the company as this is the first time that its custom Oryon cores have been integrated into its mobile platform. Qualcomm did say last year that it would bring Oryon […]

  • By Adnan Farooqui
  • 6 days ago
Snapdragon-powered Samsung flagships could get 8 years of Android OS upgrades

Snapdragon-powered Samsung flagships could get 8 years of Android OS upgrades

Samsung has already been leading the Android OEMs in offering some of the best Android OS upgrade support. Its latest high-end devices are supported for seven years, ensuring that customers can enjoy new features for a considerable amount of time, if they don't decide to upgrade their phone for the next seven years. There's a […]

  • By Adnan Farooqui
  • 6 days ago