UK tech giant Arm Holdings to be sold to US company Nvidia in $40bn deal

UK tech giant Arm Holdings to be sold to US company Nvidia in $40bn deal

One of Britain's most successful tech companies, Arm Holdings, is being sold by its Japanese owners for $40bn in a deal that could reshape the semiconductor landscape.

Nvidia, a US company, will pay SoftBank $21.5bn in shares and $12bn in cash for the chip designer although the deal is still subject to regulatory approval in the UK.

It is expected that Nvidia will face tough conditions on protecting jobs and the status of Arm's headquarters in Cambridge as part of the deal.

SoftBank paid $32bn for the company four years ago in a deal that netted a fortune for Arm's executives.

Founded in Cambridge in 1990, Arm specialises in microprocessors, and dominates the global smartphone market. But its chips are also found in countless sensors, smart devices and cloud services.

Nvidia, based in California, is