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by _hypx 1334 days ago
That seems like an incredibly dumb decision. They do realize that RISC-V is right around the corner, and could quickly end much of the ARM chip market if licensing deals are this onerous?
2 comments

It’s not just right around the corner, those chips are already in design phase: Jim Keller at Tenstorrent first wanted to license x86, then ARM to build AI chip, but as both said no, he went with RISC-V.

The funniest part is that he licensed the RISC-V chip from SiFive, which is now part of Intel.

SiFive is not part of Intel. There were reportedly talks last year that fell through.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-failed-to-buy-sifive

Rumor is Intel made an offer and were laughed out of the room.
Walking away from 2bn is gutsy.
It is a short term cash grab, which will accelerate investment in RISC-V.
RISC-V seems increasingly inevitable in much of ARM's former feeding grounds, something I doubt ARM is unaware of, so it makes sense from a business perspective to squeeze out every cent while you still can.