1.Qualcomm NXP Transaction foreign media 'play face' Sources: It is impossible to approve in the short term;
Bloomberg reported that the transaction has been approved
Set Micronet June 15th Report (Reporter Zhang Yiqun) Earlier today, South China Morning Post, Bloomberg and other foreign media reported that Chinese regulators had agreed to release the Gaotong NXP transaction.
However, according to the micro-grid, some domestic people who are familiar with the situation do not recognize the authenticity of the news. As the future of China-US trade trends remains variable, this information may be a move by the United States. The latest news so far, Reuters circulated the text at noon, saying that the report released by the Chinese regulatory authorities prior to the release of Qualcomm’s NXP business was untrue and the transaction was still awaiting approval from the Ministry of Commerce.
Reuters reported that the transaction is still under review
Earlier foreign media reports quoted insiders as saying that with the easing of the trade war between China and the United States, especially after the lifting of the ban by the ZTE, the Ministry of Commerce has already cleared the barriers between Qualcomm and NXP. Qualcomm, NXP and China’s Ministry of Commerce have not responded to this.
Previously, the Ministry of Commerce of China stated that after the merger, Qualcomm may further extend its patent licensing model to areas such as autopilot and mobile payments, and requested Qualcomm to propose relief measures. Qualcomm’s specific proposals are still unknown.
A few weeks ago, after the third round of consultations between China and the United States, similar news was released. At that time, Qualcomm’s executives and legal team arrived in Beijing and met with Chinese regulators. On the one hand, the ZTE event became a Sino-U.S. consultation. Important issues, on the other hand, Qualcomm's consultations with regulatory agencies may further complement and improve the previously proposed relief plans. Therefore, after the third round of Sino-U.S. consultations and the lifting of the ban by ZTE, it was widely approved by Chinese regulators for Qualcomm Enzhi. Pu's deal is optimistic.
However, at present, there are still variables in the release of Qualcomm's NXP transactions by Chinese regulators.
The first reason is that even though ZTE has already resumed trading in the stock market and has said that it has reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. side, U.S. Congress does not want to let go of ZTE, and still hopes to impose severe penalties on ZTE, resuming ZTE’s ban on the purchase of U.S. technical spare parts. The sanctions, the Trump administration is currently lobbying hard to stop Congress’s actions in the ZTE case.
Second, although the current trend of Sino-U.S. trade is developing in a good direction, according to the latest Sino-U.S. consultations, the Chinese side stated that if the U.S. side introduces trade sanctions measures, including tariff increases, all the economic and trade achievements negotiated Will not take effect.
June 15th (Friday) is the deadline set by the White House for setting final tariff schedules for China. According to foreign media reports, Trump will announce a 25% tariff on Chinese goods worth US$50 billion. Among them, the technology products covered by China's manufacturing of 2025 are the main products. In this case, the Chinese side is bound to make countermeasures. The case of Qualcomm NXP will remain the chip of the Sino-American game.
Therefore, in the short term, the transaction of Qualcomm NXP is still not clear, and the prospects for approval in the short term are not optimistic.
In accordance with the agreement between Qualcomm and NXP, the final deadline for the completion of the acquisition transaction is July 25. There are two conditions to be fulfilled: The first is to obtain the permission of regulatory agencies worldwide, and currently only the position of the Chinese regulator. Second, Qualcomm. To persuade NXP shareholders to successfully acquire 70% of NXP’s outstanding shares, if any condition is not established before July 25th, the transaction will fail and Qualcomm will also pay a $2 billion “break-up fee”.
In this month of the World Cup, I especially wanted to say: There is not much time left for Qualcomm. (Proofread/Act)
2.Qualcomm's server chip division layoffs: May account for half the number of employees in the department;
On the morning of June 15th, Beijing time, the Qualcomm data center chip division cut about 280 employees. Originally Qualcomm invested heavily in the server market, but now it cuts expenditures to please shareholders. According to documents submitted by Qualcomm, in North Carolina In Raleigh, NA, the Qualcomm Design Center will cut 241 positions. In addition, 43 jobs will be eliminated in California.
Informed sources said that the number of presidents (including those not mentioned in the document) accounted for one-third to one-half of the total number of employees in the server chip division. Prior to Qualcomm’s promise, there would be about 1500 cuts in the entire company. Employee.
Qualcomm evaluated the future opportunities of data center business and thought that it would take too long to occupy a place in the server chip market. Now the main goal of Qualcomm's server chip division is to be a cloud computing center and Chinese customers (such as Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu). Providing chips. Qualcomm will provide chips to Chinese customers through joint ventures in China. Qualcomm has also negotiated with potential investors and buyers, but ultimately decided to retain the department, but changed the strategy. Qualcomm president Christian Omon ( Cristiano Amon stated in the statement: 'Qualcomm will continue to look for development opportunities in the data center market and will not abandon these assets. In the data center business unit, we will cut back on investment, but will continue to retain our joint venture in China and reorient research and development. , Preparing for the upcoming computer. '
The entire server chip market is about $14 billion, and Intel has a 99% share. Because Intel has an absolute advantage, most of the industry's software is written for Intel chips. If you want to compete with Intel, ARM technology providers must Make sure there is enough software to run your chip.
Since 2015, Qualcomm's revenue has been declining every year, and is expected to decrease by 5% in fiscal year 2018. Omon believes that the opportunity of the server chip unit lies in the high-energy-consumption chip of the cell site, which is a key component of the cellular base station. It provides processing capabilities for mobile phones through wireless connectivity. Omon said that with this chip support, mobile phones can join VR/AR capabilities to provide an unparalleled experience that can now only be achieved using PCs. (Xinghai) Sina Science and technology
3. Qualcomm: Neither confronts Intel positively nor exits the server processor market;
Qualcomm’s server processor division decided to retain. When its president, Cristiano Amon, interviewed Reuters, he made it clear that Qualcomm did not plan to dispose of the ARM-based server chip unit. However, although Qualcomm does not intend to withdraw from the server processor market, The department will undergo consolidation and downsizing, and the business will be integrated into the mobile phone chip division. In the future, it will also plan to lock down large-scale data center vendors for large customer order sources. This means that Qualcomm will not target the general server system market at this stage. In a positive confrontation with Intel, from the perspective of Qualcomm, the opportunities for ARM-based server processors should focus on the few vendors that operate large data centers at this stage. From the entry barrier, it is not necessary to bear with them. X86 architecture software support package. And this kind of vendor orders are huge. Generally speaking, the number of network server procurement server systems, I am afraid that is difficult for general server manufacturers to back the item. As for the building of 5G and network function virtualization telecommunications For manufacturers, the amount of orders they purchase is also sufficient to support high Passing server chips continue to develop. ARM-based server processors cut into the data center market and x86 architecture Intel, AMD and other vendors have the biggest challenge is that the ARM-based server processor ecosystem is not mature, relatively conservative server vendors can be said Qualcomm is facing the most difficult barriers to entry. Therefore, Qualcomm now after the evaluation, locked up ultra-large-scale data center customers to fight for orders, at least the software support package transfer to self-write program development data center manufacturers, this part of the current Qualcomm has no resources to invest in, and even if it is under SoftBank, ARM does not see obvious layout actions. Another approach is to use its own server chip as its goal, guided by the mainland policy. Qualcomm promoted the ARM-based server processor to the mainland market through the joint venture Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor. With Qualcomm IP and financial support, Huaxin Semiconductor aims to develop its own R&D in mainland China within five years, in view of the fact that Guizhou is controlled by the mainland. The government designated as a big data hub and gave it a green data center Tasks: These data centers serve China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile, respectively. Qualcomm is conscious of the mainland's independent mindset, and state-owned enterprises must take the lead in responding. In cooperation with Guizhou Province, the ARM-based server processor ecosystem can rely on China Huaxin. The semiconductor companies in the mainland market have achieved through economies of scale, which is far more advantageous than Qualcomm's stand alone battle against the Intel x86 architecture server processor ecosystem in other markets. True, Qualcomm is either locking up data center vendors or through joint ventures in mainland China. The enterprise Huaxin Semiconductor friendly relations cut into the local server market, I am afraid there are still unknown risks. Since Qualcomm intends to lock-in data center manufacturers including Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, Microsoft, other server processor manufacturers Also think of this, even if IBM also has high-performance server chips, but in the past can not cut into the market, Qualcomm can really smooth sailing? If Qualcomm really grab to the Amazon including the Amazon (AWS) or Microsoft cloud Azure Part of the server processor orders, but Is it possible for Thorn to sit still and wait for Qualcomm to attack the door? The mainland market may be an opportunity for Qualcomm's server processor business to have potential for growth, but it also depends on the fact that the joint venture Huaxin Semiconductor can give Qualcomm How much support? Or is it just changing the market for technology and finally leaving the market to their own family? Qualcomm's calculations are fine, but the mainland is never a fuel-efficient lamp. The mainland may be able to do the ARM-based server processor ecosystem. However, in the end, Qualcomm may not be able to obtain chip orders, unless the market is large enough to feed everyone. Otherwise, Qualcomm may not be able to marry another person. DIGITIMES
4.Qualcom renews NXP acquisition offer or raises offer again
Set Micronet reported on June 15 (Reporter Zhang Yiqun) Today, Qualcomm announced that it has extended its cash purchase offer date for the acquisition of NXP’s outstanding shares. Qualcomm also needs to do so in the event that Chinese regulatory authorities have not allowed release. The greatest effort has been made to convince NXP shareholders to accept the transaction, which does not rule out the way to increase the offer again.
The latest cash offer deadline was set for June 22. Since Qualcomm announced the acquisition of NXP in October 2016, the offer period has been postponed several times.
According to the latest agreement between Qualcomm and NXP, the completion of this transaction depends on two conditions. One is to pass approvals within the scope of a global regulatory agency, and the other is to purchase 70% of NXP stocks out of circulation through Qualcomm cash. The time point for the final transaction is July 25th.
At present, only among the global regulatory agencies is China's position, although with the relaxation of trade war between China and the United States, especially the lifting of the ban by ZTE, the outside world has generally been optimistic about obtaining approval from the Chinese regulatory authorities. However, according to the micro-grid, the current understanding of Qualcomm The approval of NXP transactions is still on hold, and with the Trump administration announcing the addition of tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States, the case of Qualcomm NXP may once again become a bargaining chip for the Chinese side. The chance of approval in the short term is very high. small.
It is also incumbent on NXP shareholders to wait for approval from Chinese regulators. Because according to the agreement, if Qualcomm cannot complete the acquisition of 70% of NXP’s outstanding shares before July 25th, the transaction also fails. Qualcomm has repeatedly announced the delay in the cash purchase offer because it has not reached the number that triggered the acquisition.
According to the latest information released by Qualcomm, Qualcomm currently holds only 4.7% of NXP’s outstanding shares, up from 5.1% a week ago. This figure has been repeatedly fluctuating in the past six months, reflecting to some extent that NXP’s shareholders are The attitude of this acquisition.
From the data released by Qualcomm in the past six months, only in the previous month, Qualcomm raised its offer price for NXP, the shares of NXP that were acquired by the company reached its highest point, 28%. In March, this was a fierce battle with Broadcom. The figure was 19%, but gradually declined thereafter. It was about 16% in mid-April, 13% in mid-May, and only 4% by the end of May.
This does not mean that NXP shareholders do not buy Qualcomm's account, because many NXP shareholders are also anxiously waiting for the results of China's regulatory approvals. If the outlook is optimistic, it is believed that Qualcomm will be more likely to obtain the shares of NXP shareholders.
In addition, it does not rule out that Qualcomm once again raises its offer for NXP to obtain shares in the hands of NXP shareholders. At present, it seems that this approach is more straightforward. (Proofreading/Requirement)
5.ARM: Future AI will be able to run on all devices
"In the future, AI will be able to run on all types of equipment." said Nandan Nayampally, vice president of ARM and general manager of the customer division. In response to the explosion of the red AI chip market, he recently revealed his future mobile AI product strategy.
Nandan Nayampally stated that it is not just the mobile device's processor that has such capabilities. Even a very small microcontroller (MCU) already has basic AI execution processing capabilities such as ARM Cortex-M0 and Arm Cortex-M3. Series, etc. Now it is possible to run machine learning models for video or speech on the top.
As more and more mobile processors that feature AI features or features are introduced, he observes that there are more and more AP application processors that combine CPU and GPU functions, and are used to handle AI operations for different types of applications. For example, object detection, speech recognition, or face recognition. Not only are these application processors using ARM architecture, many smart devices with AI capabilities on the market also have ARM architectures, such as smart speech devices, smart cameras, or It is a smart TV and so on, even in the cloud, he said, and now its architecture has also been used in China, Japan's supercomputers to do different applications.
Nandan Nayampally emphasized that afterwards, AI will become more and more popular on mobile devices. "Almost all devices can be implemented." As for what type of AI applications can be run on it, he said it will depend on the hardware of the device. He Further explanation, Machine Learning (ML) and AI are both software and running on hardware. If it is a simple AI application, it doesn't need to go through too many calculations. CPU or GPU alone is enough; if you need to go through highly complex operations At this time, it is necessary to use Neural Network Accelerator to speed up calculations for more advanced AI applications.
Nandan Nayampally said that in the future, the company will continue to strengthen the CPU. The processing power of GPU in machine learning or AI will not only add more instruction sets, functions or tools to the design architecture, but also provide machine learning and even deeper learning. Support, but also through the software to optimize scheduling, to play a more efficient use, for example, the recently introduced Cortex-A76 CPU architecture, in the implementation of machine learning tasks than the previous generation A75 4x performance improvement, and in addition, the Mali-G76 GPU is also 3 times more efficient than the G72.
Not only is the chip development and design combined with AI, ARM also began to focus on neural network accelerators this year. It launched two new IP series, the Machine Learning Processor (MLP) and the Object Detection Processor (ODP), in the new Project Trillium architecture. This is what ARM announced earlier this year. A new family of artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
The former is used for machine learning acceleration. The floating-point performance of each processor is up to 4.6 Teraflops, and it is also more power-efficient. It can achieve 3 Teraflops of floating-point performance per watt. The latter is used for computer vision acceleration. , Compared with the traditional DSP digital signal chip, performance up to 80 times, and can handle up to 60 frames per second Full HD high-definition video.
Not only that, Nandan Nayampally is quite optimistic about the application of Object Detection in AR and VR applications. He even said that the company bought Apical 2 years ago as a technology company focusing on embedded computer vision and imaging applications. To help accelerate its entry into the AR, VR device market, in addition to existing ARM products that already support vision computing (Vision computing), he said that there will be next-generation Vision solutions.
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