Nvidia buys ARM
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/embedded-revolution/article/21141624/nvidia-to-buy-arm-in-deal-valued-at-about-40-billion
Infineon buys Cypress
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/embedded-revolution/article/21808074/infineon-to-take-over-cypress-semiconductor-in-10-billion-deal
The Nvidia-ARM deal is interesting, they’re putting those AI profits to use. It’s probably not great for consumers to see that much consolidation. Also I appreciate that Softbank is giving us all a lesson in how to turn $100B into $50B. Although, I can certainly think of more interesting ways to do it than they have.
There has been lots of talk about opposition to the sale.
The UK - they stand to lose influence over something they invented.
The PRC - since Nvidia is a US company, companies like Huawei stand to lose access to even more microchip technology.
Intel and AMD - supposedly the real losers in this deal.
The US government - on one hand, they can restrict Chinese companies. On the other hand, there are anti-trust concerns.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-deal-threatens-arm-status-040100844.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-arm-deal-revs-chip-132701007.html
Especially considering how much Nvidia likes to have “closed systems”
It is getting serious. First the automobile industry and now mobile phones. What is next?
Slide show is interesting.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/media-gallery/21156779/electronic-design-the-global-chip-shortage-explained
old news
In slightly smaller news: This merger forms the worlds largest wholesale distributor of IT and electronics: https://venturebeat.com/2021/03/22/synnex-and-tech-datas-7-2b-merger-spawns-an-it-solutions-behemoth/
Slightly old news and may have already posted -
Following Intel -
The Samsung fab in Austin is still offline over a month later.
The same outage also affected some chemical factories making precursors for foam. So the auto industry is suffering a double whammy.
Yeah. Folks would be disappointed if we went back to the “scrape you off the dashboard” days…
Seat belts, air bags to protect the hardwood dash.
The context is not going back to “when bench seats were actually benches” days.
And apparently rubber for tires is facing a number of challenges. Not yet affecting availability, but driving prices up.
Pricing in most markets is up. Lumber is up high, electronics, metals, piping , valves, etc… The cost of the sheet metal we are using for the partition/wall/safety barrier has doubled. Thankfully its only 70 a sheet vs the 35$. Polycarbonate has seemed to come down in price, only because of the excess production of Covid. Its 120 a sheet for 3/16”.
For our equipment we are having difficulty getting main microboards. Our parts dept was bad before, now we are looking at longer lead times.
And more good news -