Recently, the news that Japan’s Softbank will sell its Arm chip design company has attracted great attention from the outside world. Foreign media have also repeatedly reported that Apple, Samsung, NVIDIA and other companies intend to acquire ARM, but Apple and Samsung have denied it. In addition to the most rumored NVIDIA, the Japanese media Nikkei Asia Edition also named TSMC, Hon Hai, Qualcomm and other companies yesterday, claiming that they will also participate in the acquisition of ARM.

However, TSMC has now denied it, saying that it has no plans to invest in Arm.

In the eyes of many people, if TSMC, which focuses on foundry production, participates in the acquisition of Arm, the CPU-related business can be combined with hardware and software. In fact, people who think this way have no understanding of the foundry model of TSMC. The most feared thing in the industry is As a referee and an athlete, TSMC really has no reason to participate in the acquisition of Arm.

This problem is also the key for other companies to acquire Arm. If Arm operates independently, other companies using Arm IP licensing can maintain a balance. Once acquired by companies such as Apple or NVIDIA, it may destroy Arm’s licensing model.

In theory, even if Arm is sold, it is best to find a third-party consortium to take over, or to operate independently through an IPO, and it will face many difficulties when it is acquired by an industry company, not only in terms of funding.