SK Hynix considering consortium to buy Arm

The interior of Arm's UK headquarters
(Image credit: Hundven-Clements Photography)

Arm is looking like a ripe takeover target. South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix is weighing up whether to form a consortium of investors to acquire the British company.

According to Yonhap news agency (via Yahoo Finance) Park Jung-ho, vice chairman and CEO of SK Hynix is quoted as saying: "We are reviewing possibly forming a consortium, together with strategic partners, to jointly acquire it," He followed up by saying "I don't believe Arm is a company that could be bought by one company.” The comments came following the company’s annual general shareholders meeting.

The news follows Nvidia's earlier failed bid to buy Arm after the US based company came up against major regulatory hurdles. The US Federal Trade Commission, UK Competition and Markets Authority, the European Commission and Chinese antitrust authority all raised concerns over the takeover. That led to Nvidia writing off $1.36 billion as a result of the failed bid.

As a South Korean company, it remains to be seen how global regulators will view a potential bid. If a deal does end up happening, it won't be finalized any time soon.

Best CPU for gamingBest gaming motherboardBest graphics cardBest SSD for gaming


Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first

Current Arm owner SoftBank is  preparing to list Arm on the Nasdaq exchange. Arm has become one of the leaders in the world semiconductor ecosystem. Chips based on Arm intellectual property are sold by many of the world's largest tech companies. Not just the Apple’s and Samsung’s of the world, but across industries as diverse as cars to supercomputers to automation. 

Some analysts and Arm licensees themselves see Arm based architectures dethroning x86 as the dominant PC architecture. Qualcomm certainly seems to think so. Qualcomm, known for its Snapdragon SoC’s, claims that the company is "very well positioned to be the preferred platform for PCs, in the inevitable transition to Arm."

 

Chris Szewczyk
Hardware Writer

Chris' gaming experiences go back to the mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an 'educational PC' that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Fighter. He developed a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his savings despite the cheaper hardware on offer via his job at a PC store. To afford more LN2 he began moonlighting as a reviewer for VR-Zone before jumping the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, he's gone back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC & Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian Personal Computer magazine and PC Gamer. Chris still puts far too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more efficient killer.

Read more
ARM logo exhibited at ARM stand during the Mobile World Congress (MWC).
Arm reportedly plans to make its own CPUs from this summer with future chips said to be powering a revolutionary Jony Ive-designed AI device
 photo shows a factory tool that places lids on data center system-on-chips at an Intel fab in Chandler, Arizona, in December 2023. In February 2024, Intel Corporation launched Intel Foundry as the world’s first systems foundry for the AI era, delivering leadership in technology, resiliency and sustainability.
TSMC now said not to be eyeing up Intel's fabs while other rumours suggest Intel could be split between TSMC and Broadcom
 photo shows a factory tool that places lids on data center system-on-chips at an Intel fab in Chandler, Arizona, in December 2023. In February 2024, Intel Corporation launched Intel Foundry as the world’s first systems foundry for the AI era, delivering leadership in technology, resiliency and sustainability.
So, wait, now TSMC is supposedly pitching a joint venture with Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom to run Intel's ailing chip fabs?
Promotional image of a generic Snapdragon X Plus chip in a stylized circuit board
Arm won't keep chasing after Qualcomm on the grounds of licensing shenanigans—but the legal jostling isn't over
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivering pancakes and sausages to pre-GTC show hosts and guests, wearing an apron
'There might be a party. I wasn't invited,' says Jensen Huang of the rumoured TSMC proposal to join forces and run Intel's chip fabs
 photo shows a factory tool that places lids on data center system-on-chips at an Intel fab in Chandler, Arizona, in December 2023. In February 2024, Intel Corporation launched Intel Foundry as the world’s first systems foundry for the AI era, delivering leadership in technology, resiliency and sustainability.
'This is not unlocking shareholder value, it's a fire sale': Jim Keller weighs in on a possible 'careless' Intel chip and fab spin-off
Latest in Hardware
A Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice on a desk and installed in a gaming PC.
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice SFF review
A late afternoon view shows two young women walking past a wall-sized anime mural along Chuo-dori (Central Avenue) in the Akihabara district (known as Electric Town for its maze of electronics stores, but currently considered an almost sacred destination by members of Japan's otaku culture, drawn to Akihabara's video game centers, maid cafes, anime shops, and manga comics), located in Chiyoda Ward in central Tokyo, Japan.
OpenAI's GPT-4o model gets image generation update for all of your anime-style selfie needs
A Nacon Rig Streamstar M2 microphone on white gravel, shot in 3/4 profile
Nacon Rig M2 Streamstar review
1X Technologies humanoid robot, the Neo Gamma, standing alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Huang is wearing an ERL-made studded leather jacket.
Humanoid robot Neo Gamma gifts Nvidia CEO a studded leather jacket and may even be able to one day wash up a cup without dropping it
Razer Blade 16 (2025) gaming laptop
Nvidia RTX 5090 mobile tested: The needle hasn't moved on performance but this is the first time I'd consider ditching my desktop for a gaming laptop
A woman wearing a VR headset with dramatic, colourful lighting across the background
'World’s smallest LEDs' could lead to accurately lit screens with 127,000 pixels per inch and much more immersive VR
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'