[tw04]

Because they want to own their own destiny? The same reason they could've OEM'd Mellanox switches but chose to buy the company instead.

What exactly would their end-game be if ARM were acquired by say... a Chinese firm who DID decide to end licensing terms. Then what?

[klelatti]

Arm was never going to be acquired by a Chinese firm - it would have been blocked.

The problem is that controlling its own destiny gives it control over all its competitors destinies too - and that's not good. I have nothing particularly against Nvidia btw - the same issue would apply for any major SoC designer buying Arm.