Recent media reports say that Intel is attempting to acquire SiFive. Nvidia's acquisition of ARM is attracting stronger market attention towards RISC-V architecture.
www.businesskorea.co.kr, Jun. 14, 2021 –
Media reports are saying that Intel is attempting to acquire SiFive. Representing a potential competitor to ARM, SiFive is a startup that is developing RISC-V architecture. The acquisition price under negotiation is reported to be around US$2bn. In 2020, investors sized the value of SiFive at about US$500mn. The processor architecture market is divided into x86 and ARM. The PC and server segments are currently dominated by x86, and the mobile segment is dominated by ARM.
Recently, ARM processors such as Apple's M1 and AWS's Graviton2 have been making successful headway into the PC and server markets. With ARM architecture now in the spotlight, Nvidia is in the process of acquiring ARM Holdings. Currently, it is awaiting approval from governments in Europe and China. If Nvidia succeeds in obtaining ARM, it will create a worrisome situation for several tech players currently using ARM architecture, as their competitor (ie, Nvidia) will be in control of their core architecture.