1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,120 NVIDIA is trying to strong ARM its way into more devices than ever before, and yes, if 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:09,600 you can forgive that terrible, terrible pun, today's video is going to be about NVIDIA's 3 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:15,640 acquisition of ARM. Now, at first, the two companies don't seem to be likely partners given that they mostly 4 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:21,920 operate in different spaces, NVIDIA in dedicated graphics and ARM in more general purpose systems 5 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:28,360 on a chip for smartphones and mobile devices. But like many tech acquisitions, this one is about NVIDIA getting a foothold in what 6 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:36,560 of things will be a lucrative market in the future. Not only are ARM designs at the heart of nearly all smartphones, both iOS and Android-based, 7 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:42,320 but they're in IoT devices, embedded systems, and even in AI applications, which is something 8 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:49,080 right in NVIDIA's wheelhouse. You see, even though NVIDIA is better known for consumer graphics, GPUs are actually powerful 9 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:54,560 chips for machine learning, too, because they're very good at processing parallel workloads. 10 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:58,720 That is, workloads that can be chopped up into pieces with the processor working on multiple 11 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:05,240 pieces simultaneously. And NVIDIA has already leveraged this fact to make products for deep learning in self-driving 12 00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:14,000 cars, retail, and surveillance. But ARM gives them a huge leg up in the AI market. 13 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:18,540 Although the phrase machine learning might conjure up images of large-scale server farms 14 00:01:18,540 --> 00:01:23,640 working on incredibly complicated problems, AI on a much smaller scale is starting to become 15 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:30,440 more common and more important. In recent years, ARM has released machine learning capable processors for smartphones 16 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:35,160 and IoT devices with the goal of allowing these gadgets to learn on their own without 17 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:41,780 having to rely on the cloud. Think about photo-enhancing algorithms for phones or object detection on an autonomous 18 00:01:41,780 --> 00:01:47,080 car that will work even if you're in an area with little to no network coverage. 19 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:51,240 But because NVIDIA has been in the GPU business for such a long time, the company is in a 20 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:56,880 good position to use ARM as a vehicle to get more advanced AI solutions into many more 21 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:02,800 devices. Although NVIDIA has actually tried to get its ARM-based Tegra chips into phones in the 22 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:07,000 past, they didn't have much success partly because of price. 23 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,760 But this time, NVIDIA is just buying the whole enchilada. 24 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:16,080 On top of that, remember that ARM's business model is not to make the chips themselves, 25 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:20,320 but to license out their designs to a huge array of other companies. 26 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:24,880 Because ARM has so many licensing agreements in place already, NVIDIA might be able to 27 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:28,360 quickly start competing in lots of different markets. 28 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:36,360 And it isn't just about the small gadgets either. In fact, NVIDIA is planning to build an ARM-based supercomputer for AI research and machine learning, 29 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:41,080 and yes, it's similar to that thing in sci-fi where a machine figures out how to make more 30 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:48,960 of itself. But such a momentous merger isn't just going to happen without the world raising some eyebrows. 31 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:52,920 Although this is the case with a lot of large mergers due to concerns about one company 32 00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:58,080 dominating a certain market, there's also another wrinkle in that even though ARM is 33 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:03,320 a private firm, they've been called the Switzerland of the semiconductor industry. 34 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,640 Because the company is rather neutral about who they license their chip designs to. 35 00:03:07,640 --> 00:03:12,720 For example, both Samsung and Qualcomm use ARM-based chips even though they're directly 36 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:19,720 competing in the smartphone space. So the concern is that although NVIDIA has promised to keep ARM neutral for the time 37 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:25,320 being, NVIDIA may not want to license ARM technology to companies it's in more direct 38 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:32,760 competition with down the line. A possibility that may hurt NVIDIA as the deal still has to clear regulatory hurdles 39 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:36,840 in order to be approved. But if it does get approved, who knows? 40 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:41,080 Maybe one day you'll be able to carry around a full-on gaming rig in your pocket, assuming 41 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,160 it doesn't literally burn a hole through your trousers. 42 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:51,600 So thanks for watching guys, if you liked this video give us a thumbs up, hit subscribe and be sure to check us out in the comments section where you can give us tips and suggestions 43 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:53,480 for topics that we should cover in the future.