UK politicians want Arm to be listed in London if Nvidia's bid to buy fails

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

Nvidia has been going through the arduous process of trying to acquire top semiconductor company Arm for some time now. Despite Nvidia's stalwart attempts to convince those who opposed the acquisition that the merger would be worthwhile for everyone, all has not been going to plan.

We reported a couple of weeks back that Nvidia could be ready to abandon its Arm acquisition. And now, UK politicians are making a case for SoftBank to float Arm on the London stock market as a public offering, their argument hinging on the fact the deal is a matter of "national interest."

Nvidia's prospective Arm deal has been met with heaps of pushback. Although the company has argued it should be allowed to buy Arm because Intel and AMD are really, really good, and because buying Arm will "spur competition" in consoles, not hinder it, it's been looking increasingly like SoftBank may instead opt for a public offering if that all falls through.

According to This is Money (via TechPowerUp) several British MP's are right now trying to convince SoftBank to get Arm on the London Stock Exchange, instead of selling to Nvidia. They have made it clear they believe the £30 billion (~$45 billion) business should come down to a public offering in Britain.

Cooling off

Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R and EK-AIO Basic 240 CPU coolers on a two-tone grey background

(Image credit: Cooler Master, EKWB)

Best AIO cooler for CPUs: All-in-one, and one for all... components.
Best CPU air coolers: CPU fans that don't go brrr.

Their reasoning? "To ensure its interests and those of its investors are aligned with our national interest."

With Arm's Global Headquarters based in Cambridge, England, the politicians evidently feel it makes sense to see the company offered in London, before being offered to a foreign company like Nvidia. Though, that said, Arm is currently owned by a Japanese company.

There's no official word from Nvidia on the matter, and nothing is set in stone, but the idea of a public offering does look much more likely than it did last year.

Katie Wickens
Hardware Writer

Screw sports, Katie would rather watch Intel, AMD and Nvidia go at it. Having been obsessed with computers and graphics for three long decades, she took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni, and has been rambling about games, tech and science—rather sarcastically—for four years since. She can be found admiring technological advancements, scrambling for scintillating Raspberry Pi projects, preaching cybersecurity awareness, sighing over semiconductors, and gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. Right now she's waiting patiently for her chance to upload her consciousness into the cloud.

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
Nvidia headquarters
Nvidia denounces Biden administration's 'rigged' and 'misguided' new AI chip export restrictions
The NVIDIA stand at the Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, September 19, 2024. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Nvidia share price plummets as it loses more than $600B in valuation, the biggest single-day loss in history
 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?
Nvidia headquarters
Nvidia loses over $200 billion in valuation in a single day, as Trump's tariffs continue to roll out
SUQIAN, CHINA - JANUARY 27, 2025 - An illustration photo shows the logo of DeepSeek and ChatGPT in Suqian, Jiangsu province, China, January 27, 2025. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
China's DeepSeek chatbot reportedly gets much more done with fewer GPUs but Nvidia still thinks it's 'excellent' news
Latest in Processors
Nvidia Feynman GPU
While we despair of RTX 50-series supplies and wait on next-gen Rubin, Nvidia reveals its next-next GPU architecture will be known as Feynman and is due in 2028
Nvidia Vera CPU
Nvidia reveals Vera, a new CPU with 'custom' cores which could be very exciting for its upcoming premium PC processor
Machinery tools and equipment,Rolls of galvanized steel for production metal pipes and tubes for industrial ventilation systems in factory.
New super-thin '2D' metal sheets could enable ultra-low power chips and can you guess how they're made? Yup, by squishing stuff really hard
Aooster's G-Flip 370 mini PC
This palm-sized PC has removable memory, a flip up screen, and a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor
Texas Instruments MSPM0C1104 tiny chip
World's smallest microcontroller looks like I could easily accidentally inhale it but packs a genuine 32-bit Arm CPU
Intel engineers inspect a lithography machine
Finally some good vibes from Intel as stock jumps 15% on new CEO hire and Arizona fab celebrates 'Eagle has landed' moment for its 18A node
Latest in News
Union organizers and game developers gather at GDC 2025.
Game dev union marches through industry event to demonstrate that it's about 'taking action and organizing change'
The jester from Balatro, portrayed in unsettling detail in real life, wears an uncanny smile and stares at the viewer.
Balatro's LocalThunk isn't 'trying to pull a Banksy', he just 'wanted to be left alone to make his game'
Two characters from Warframe 1999 lounging in a bar.
The warframe with a guitar that shoots fire is out today alongside a bunch of metalcore-inspired skins, cementing Warframe's spiral into Y2K madness
A Minecraft movie promo image of the main cast standing side by side,
This is why the Minecraft movie is called A Minecraft Movie
helldivers 2 democratic detonation
Johan Pilestedt warns that Helldivers 2 took 4 more years than planned because Arrowhead skipped pre-production and dove right in: 'Always do your homework before you start spending millions and millions and millions of dollars in making a game'
helldivers 2 arrowhead CCO johan pilestedt
Helldivers 2's Johan Pilestedt says developers need to start taking more risks: 'Safe bets are a death sentence for the studios that try to make them'