And so it continues

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/06/06/softbank_offloads_51_per_cent_of_arm_china_for_a_bargain_7752m/

How do you feel about this?

How do you feel about this?

Fuzzy and indistinct, like an old fashioned television that isn’t quite tuned to the channel; with a hint of dark lilac, like the sky very early in the morning way before the sun rises.

Well, you did ask.

More seriously, I understand the logic behind this. China likes ARM and with Trump seeming to think that it’s fun to start trade wars for the lulz, it makes a lot of sense for the Chinese to simply cut out American (and largely by extension, European) influences in what sort of chip designs and technologies they can access. This isn’t really a surprise and one could probably have predicted that something along these lines would happen once it went to Japan (which would see the problem from an Asian perspective rather than a British one).

The things that concern me are:
1, What will be the knock on effect to ARM itself? The Chinese have pretty big ambitions to outdo the turnover of the parent in a few short years, and with the huge Chinese (and other Asian) markets, it’s actually possible. Will ARM ARM get royalties from this?
2, How long do you suppose it will be before the “maker” end of the market gets flooded with all sorts of cheap “ARM like” devices with varying levels of insanity. We already have knock off STM32 chips.
3, Sending intellectual property to China is only marginally better than dumping it on PasteBin…

And, I guess, I wonder how long it will be until the Chinese arm of ARM decides to just cut out the European side entirely.

I see this as a good thing for China.
I’m just not sure if it’s a good thing for us.