Some thoughts on the ARM chip;
1. Qualcomm litigation;
2. Major customers seeking to design their own processors.
3. ARM recently advised that it saw a major risk in having a large proportion of its business with a few major customers.
4. ARM recently announced proposed changes to its licensing model to increase revenue.
5. Softbank has $170B debt.
6. ARM is suddenly chummy with BRN.
1. Qualcomm supplies the processors for most mobile phones.
Qualcomm took over Nuvia which had a licence from ARM providing access to more advanced tech than the Qualcomm licence from ARM. ARM contends that the licence is non-transferrable. So does the ARM chip give ARM extra leverage over Qualcomm, possibly with a view to a settlement, because it would be a major shift for ARM to become a chip seller?
2. If ARM's major customers develop their own chips in competition with ARM, then ARM will need to find a new market. As we have seen selling IP to new customers is a tough job, so providing the finished article may be an easier task.
3. See 1 & 2.
4. This is no doubt linked to 5 and also to 1.
5. res ipsa loquitur. Softbank need a heap of readies.
6. The half-full version is my preferred outcome (ie, unsupported by any confirmatory evidence), where ARM decides to float off its in-house AI, Helium, and replace it with Akida 2 in their "more advanced" chip.
The dots here are:
BrainChip joining ARM's preferred partners,
the very recent announcement of ARM's fabless chip production plans, where
IFS is slated to be the fab,
BRN is an IFS partner, and
ARM is about to sing Akida's praises.
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