Ranking of the largest semiconductor industry acquisitions worldwide as of 2020

Nvidia announced on 13 September 2020 that the company had reached an agreement with SoftBank Group Corp (SBG) to purchase Arm Limited, in a transaction worth 40 billion U.S. dollars. While the deal still requires formal approval, it stands to be the largest semiconductor industry acquisition in history. Previously, Avago held the record with their 37 billion U.S. dollar acquisition of Broadcom. Arm processor architecture Arm, also recognized in the industry as ARM, is a semiconductor and software design company with its global HQ in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. The company is best known for its computer processor architecture. Arm develops the architecture and licenses it to other companies, who then use the design to create microcontrollers (MCUs), central processing units (CPUs), and SoCs. SBG acquired the company in 2016. Apple’s partnership with Arm Arm’s processor architecture is commonly found within modern-day smartphones. Examples include the Apple A13 Bionic chip, found in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, designed by Apple using Arm’s processor architecture. In addition to their smartphones, in 2020, Apple announced it will begin using Arm-based CPUs across its line of Mac PCs, a move away from their current partnership with Intel. The decision was made in order to standardize on one CPU architecture for all iPhone, iPad, and Mac products, with the transition to Apple's custom Arm-based chips expected to take place over a two-year period.

2020年9月13日，英伟达公司宣布，已与软银集团（SoftBank Group Corp，简称SBG）达成协议，收购安谋有限公司（Arm Limited），交易额高达400亿美元。尽管该交易仍需正式批准，但预计将成为半导体行业历史上最大规模的收购案例。此前，安华高（Avago）以370亿美元的收购金额创下了纪录。安谋（Arm），亦被称为ARM，是一家总部位于英国剑桥的半导体及软件设计公司。该公司以其计算机处理器架构而闻名。安谋负责开发该架构，并将其许可给其他公司，后者利用该设计创建微控制器（MCUs）、中央处理器（CPUs）和系统单芯片（SoCs）。软银集团于2016年收购了该公司。苹果与安谋的合作关系安谋的处理器架构在现代智能手机中极为常见。例如，苹果A13仿生芯片，应用于iPhone 11及iPhone 11 Pro，正是苹果采用安谋处理器架构设计的。除了智能手机，2020年，苹果宣布将开始在其Mac PC产品线中使用基于安谋的CPU，这标志着其与英特尔（Intel）的现有合作关系的转变。该决策旨在为所有iPhone、iPad和Mac产品统一CPU架构，预计过渡到苹果定制的基于安谋的芯片将在两年内完成。