NVIDIA now in exclusive talks with SoftBank about ARM acquisition?

Will NVIDIA emerge as the winner in the bid to acquire British chip designer ARM? Last month rumors intensified that SoftBank was weighing its options and days ago the Japanese firm confirmed it's indeed considering a sale. While nothing has been set in stone yet, NVIDIA is the name that pops up the most.

Evening Standard now claims that NVIDIA has entered exclusive talks with SoftBank as other parties are no longer interested in a deal. The paper claims Softbank founder Masayoshi Son wants around £40 billion ($52.35 billion) for ARM, a nice return versus the $32 billion that was paid in 2016.

In April, Goldman approached Apple, which decided against buying the business. The bank then tried to put together a consortium including, Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia who would all take stakes in Arm, the Evening Standard understands.

But California based Nvidia has emerged as the sole interested buyer.

While an acquisition of ARM would immediately give NVIDIA a large presence in the processor market, and a nice licensing business, a lot of analysts are worried about the implications of this deal. A potential deal is bound to raise regulatory concern and is also likely to spark worries at current ARM clients due to the implications for the ARM ecosystem.