Nvidia to buy UK chipmaker Arm from Softbank in $40 billion deal

US graphics chip maker Nvidia said it plans to buy UK-based Arm Holdings in a deal worth up to USD 40 billion, in a move that would create a global industry powerhouse.

Nvidia and Arm’s parent company, Japanese technology giant SoftBank, announced the deal Sunday.

Nvidia is based in Santa Clara, California, and is best known for its graphics processing chips. Arm’s chip designs power the vast majority of the world’s smartphones and the company is renowned as an innovator in technology for connected devices, known as the Internet of Things.

Arm centers its business on designing chips and licensing the intellectual property, especially in mobile computing, rather than chip manufacturing, for which it relies on partners.