8 ms·

Hasn't the ship already sailed? It was sold to softbank and now NVidia? It seems a too late for this. edit: Get rid of little to late and change to too late.

archgoon 6y ago
Apparently; when ARM was first sold to Softbank, Softbank made several guarantees to the UK. Nvidia has made no agreement to continue those guarantees. > At that time, Softbank announced it had agreed to legally binding commitments to increase investment, headcount and preserve its headquarters in the UK. > It is not too late for the government to impose conditions, but conversations on whether to impose them or what they might be have not even started.
- mytailorisrich 6y ago
  The UK is not in a position of strength at the moment. Brexit might give us back 'control' from Brussels but does not exactly give us the upper hand in commercial negotiations with the US. Now, I'm sure that Nvidia will want the deal to close smoothly and will thus be willing to give similar guarantees. Of course the trick is that these guarantees usually (and sensibly) come with a time limit, which also suits governments, so don't mean that much in fine.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
  They should move HQ to Ireland to maintain easy access to the European talent pool.
- fluffything 6y ago
  > Nvidia has made no agreement to continue those guarantees. Hasn't Nvidia has actually increased those guarantees with everything they have agreed on for buying ARM?
  - throwaway2048 6y ago
    Do you have a source for this?
    - fluffything 6y ago
      The actual nvidia announcement linked in the original post? (https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for-40-billion-creating-worlds-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for...) I could quote the whole post, but to satisfy UK regulators, NVIDIA committed to: > NVIDIA will expand Arm’s R&D presence in Cambridge, UK, by establishing a world-class AI research and education center, and building an Arm/NVIDIA-powered AI supercomputer for groundbreaking research which is much more than Softbank ever did. And the list of things they commited to goes on, and probably will continue to increase as the US and China get their says on this.
- OJFord 6y ago
  I would assume Nvidia bought (by obligation) those commitments too? Otherwise it would be pointless having them in the first place, you'd just get out of it (if you wanted to) with some creative corporate governance. [I used to work at Arm, but not on creative corporate governance.]
  - toyg 6y ago
    Uhm, no...? The obligation was on Softbank, not on ARM. > you'd just get out of it (if you wanted to) with some creative corporate governance ... aand you've just "discovered" how large companies routinely get out of their commitments to politicians.
    - jlokier 6y ago
      > The obligation was on Softbank, not on ARM Plausibly the obligation on Softbank could require them, when selling, to require the new buyer agree to the same obligation.
xchaotic 6y ago
Great Britain is now much more desperate. It needs to compete for market share and access to markets like a 3rd world country but without the associated cheap labour so high tech is one of the few anchors where Britain might have USP. But as you say with ARM that ship has sailed with the previous sale to SoftBank. The only chance to salvage some of the know how (not the IP) would be if these specialists could find similar jobs in Cambridge but there simply isn’t enough opportunities especially as the broader market is dire battered by brexit covid and general stagflation. Not an enviable position- bit like Japan a few years back.
- uzakov 6y ago
  To add to this comment(might be biased as I live and work in the UK): salaries here are just not on the USA level, while costs of items are the same, if not higher(check Apple products price difference on the official website, clothing etc). For many of high demand engineers the choice is London/Manchester or move to the USA
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    Like most tech people I know in the UK, I've worked for North American companies my whole career. I'd love to work for a UK company and support investment in the UK more, but the pay and working conditions just aren't even remotely competitive (how crazy does that sound, saying I have to go to North American companies to get better working conditions but it's true.) Thankfully more and more let you work remotely from the UK now. I might be misremembering and exaggerating but I think I looked at ARM internships a decade ago and they were paying about the same daily rate as the hourly rate I got from an American company. Guess where people went?
    - ChuckNorris89 6y ago
      >how crazy does that sound, saying I have to go to North American companies to get better working conditions but it's true Same for my time in Germany. I got way better working conditions(not talking about money) working for US companies who had offices there than for German ones.

archgoon 6y ago

Apparently; when ARM was first sold to Softbank, Softbank made several guarantees to the UK. Nvidia has made no agreement to continue those guarantees. > At that time, Softbank announced it had agreed to legally binding commitments to increase investment, headcount and preserve its headquarters in the UK. > It is not too late for the government to impose conditions, but conversations on whether to impose them or what they might be have not even started.

mytailorisrich 6y ago
The UK is not in a position of strength at the moment. Brexit might give us back 'control' from Brussels but does not exactly give us the upper hand in commercial negotiations with the US. Now, I'm sure that Nvidia will want the deal to close smoothly and will thus be willing to give similar guarantees. Of course the trick is that these guarantees usually (and sensibly) come with a time limit, which also suits governments, so don't mean that much in fine.
kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
They should move HQ to Ireland to maintain easy access to the European talent pool.
fluffything 6y ago
> Nvidia has made no agreement to continue those guarantees. Hasn't Nvidia has actually increased those guarantees with everything they have agreed on for buying ARM?
- throwaway2048 6y ago
  Do you have a source for this?
  - fluffything 6y ago
    The actual nvidia announcement linked in the original post? (https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for-40-billion-creating-worlds-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for...) I could quote the whole post, but to satisfy UK regulators, NVIDIA committed to: > NVIDIA will expand Arm’s R&D presence in Cambridge, UK, by establishing a world-class AI research and education center, and building an Arm/NVIDIA-powered AI supercomputer for groundbreaking research which is much more than Softbank ever did. And the list of things they commited to goes on, and probably will continue to increase as the US and China get their says on this.
OJFord 6y ago
I would assume Nvidia bought (by obligation) those commitments too? Otherwise it would be pointless having them in the first place, you'd just get out of it (if you wanted to) with some creative corporate governance. [I used to work at Arm, but not on creative corporate governance.]
- toyg 6y ago
  Uhm, no...? The obligation was on Softbank, not on ARM. > you'd just get out of it (if you wanted to) with some creative corporate governance ... aand you've just "discovered" how large companies routinely get out of their commitments to politicians.
  - jlokier 6y ago
    > The obligation was on Softbank, not on ARM Plausibly the obligation on Softbank could require them, when selling, to require the new buyer agree to the same obligation.

xchaotic 6y ago

Great Britain is now much more desperate. It needs to compete for market share and access to markets like a 3rd world country but without the associated cheap labour so high tech is one of the few anchors where Britain might have USP. But as you say with ARM that ship has sailed with the previous sale to SoftBank. The only chance to salvage some of the know how (not the IP) would be if these specialists could find similar jobs in Cambridge but there simply isn’t enough opportunities especially as the broader market is dire battered by brexit covid and general stagflation. Not an enviable position- bit like Japan a few years back.

uzakov 6y ago
To add to this comment(might be biased as I live and work in the UK): salaries here are just not on the USA level, while costs of items are the same, if not higher(check Apple products price difference on the official website, clothing etc). For many of high demand engineers the choice is London/Manchester or move to the USA
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  Like most tech people I know in the UK, I've worked for North American companies my whole career. I'd love to work for a UK company and support investment in the UK more, but the pay and working conditions just aren't even remotely competitive (how crazy does that sound, saying I have to go to North American companies to get better working conditions but it's true.) Thankfully more and more let you work remotely from the UK now. I might be misremembering and exaggerating but I think I looked at ARM internships a decade ago and they were paying about the same daily rate as the hourly rate I got from an American company. Guess where people went?
  - ChuckNorris89 6y ago
    >how crazy does that sound, saying I have to go to North American companies to get better working conditions but it's true Same for my time in Germany. I got way better working conditions(not talking about money) working for US companies who had offices there than for German ones.