When Nvidia announced its intention to purchase Arm[1] in a $40 billion deal, it marked the start of an expected 18-month process that would see Arm shift from SoftBank to Nvidia.
That period of time, even for a large transaction, is a long time, according to Gartner vice president analyst Alan Priestley.
"They're obviously going to expect challenges. The fact that they're projecting it's going to take that time, a lot can happen in the [semiconductor] industry in 18 months," he told ZDNet.
"A lot can happen in this world in 18 months so the market might be dramatically different at the end of this closed time."
It was only a little under 18 months ago that the US really started ratcheting up its trade war with China by placing Huawei on its Entity List, which impacted Arm directly[2] by forcing it to suspend work with the Chinese giant.
This time though, the shoe is on the other foot, as the Nvidia-Arm deal needs approval from Beijing, the same Beijing that used its state-run mouthpiece[3] to compare the Trump administration's handling of TikTok[4] to the behaviour of gangsters.
"National security has become the weapon of choice for the [sic] Washington when it wants to curb the rise of any companies from foreign countries that are outperforming their US peers," China Daily said.
"China has no reason to give the green light to such a deal, which is dirty and unfair and based on bullying and extortion. If the US gets its way, it will continue to do the same with other foreign companies. Giving in to the unreasonable demands of the US would mean the doom of the Chinese company ByteDance."
China