US technology giant Nvidia Corporation could pay up to $47 billion for Cambridge UK superchip world leader Arm, Business Weekly believes.

Serial technology entrepreneurs contacted by Business Weekly have conducted in-depth forensics on a potential buyer for Arm which has been put up for sale by Japanese parent SoftBank, four years after paying $32bn for the business.

SoftBank is desperate for cash and Nvidia has emerged as the most synergistic of interested parties – but more importantly, the prospective buyer with the biggest and most flexible warchest.

This is no California dreaming: Acquisition of Arm would give Santa Clara-based Nvidia a massive upside by hitching a whole host of technologies to its world-class wagon – not just mobile phones but a range of novel nextgen mobile computing plays, including automotive.

Business Weekly believes that if SoftBank refloated Arm – one of its stated strategies – it would have an IPO value of around $40bn.

Nvidia’s market cap at July 22 was $257 bn and experienced observers believe the company would be prepared to pay anything between $40bn and $50bn for Arm’s array of unrivalled processor brilliance.

Nvidia designs graphics processing units for the gaming and professional markets, as well as system on a chip units for the mobile computing and automotive markets.

SoftBank is putting Arm’s IoT business up for sale but there is nothing to stop Nvidia swallowing that tasty mouthful as well.

Nvidia would not be shooting in the dark by acquiring Arm. The Cambridge company’s president of the IP Products Group, Rene Haas, spent seven years at Nvidia as VP and general manager of its computing products business.
He is highly respected by Nvidia management and regarded as a trusted pair of hands.

Arm and Nvidia are not commenting on speculation. All enquiries to Arm are being referred to SoftBank which is seeking as much cash as it can get for the Cambridge technology superstar.

Haas revealed recently that Arm has now shipped over 160 billion chips – more than 20 times the population of the planet.

Nvidia has shopped in Cambridge before of course, having paid $430 million for Stan Boland’s Icera in 2011.