The co-founder of UK microchip company Arm, Hermann Hauser, has called on the UK government to block its proposed sale to US company Nvidia and encourage a merger with Bristol-based AI chip start-up Graphcore. He warns that British processors should not become collateral damage in the trade war between China and the US.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Hauser argues that a combination of Arm and Graphcore would help create a trillion-pound British technology company. He warns that selling Arm to Nvidia threatens the UK's tech sovereignty, leaving its technology infrastructure open to foreign interference. Combining the two UK companies would make Arm the most comprehensive supplier of processors worldwide.
Hermann calls on the government to follow an ambitious industrial strategy by helping to take Arm public on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The UK Government would be the cornerstone investor with USD 1-2 billion, and then help secure investment from Arm's main licensees including Apple, Sony, Samsung, NXP, Qualcomm and Infineon. He argues that these companies all have an interest in the neutral status of Arm, which has over 500 licensees worldwide, instead of a Nvidia monopoly. Such a strategy would help boost the LSE's languishing technology stock sector; retain choice of all types of processors for the UK and the world; and stop the US from controlling all processor architectures worldwide.
