Softbank Group Corp’s Arm Ltd and its Chinese chip venture yesterday clashed publicly over whether the venture’s chief executive officer had been fired, a dispute that threatens to disrupt a company central to the global semiconductor industry.
The British firm on Tuesday said that the board of Arm China (安謀中國) — jointly owned by Arm and investors including China’s sovereign wealth fund — voted to remove chief executive officer Allen Wu (吳雄昂) and replace him with a pair of co-CEOs.
Hours later, Arm China posted a statement on its WeChat (微博) account asserting that Wu was still in charge and the venture was operating normally.
The British firm then fired back to say it stood by its original statement, adding that Wu had been fired after an investigation uncovered undisclosed conflicts of interest and contraventions of employee rules.
“Following a whistle-blower complaint, and several other current and former employee complaints, an investigation was undertaken by Arm Limited,” the company said in its latest statement, jointly issued with shareholder Hopu Investment Management (厚朴基金管理).
“Evidence received from multiple sources found serious irregularities, including failing to disclose conflicts of interest and violations of the employee handbook,” it said.
The controversy came at a sensitive time for Arm and the company’s 49 percent-owned Chinese affiliate, when Western firms are struggling to navigate an escalating clash between the US and China over technology leadership.
Arm, a UK-based company whose semiconductor designs are used in a majority of the world’s mobile devices, is among the firms grappling with the uncertainty of growing tensions.
Arm said that the board had appointed Ken Phua (潘鎮元) and Phil Tang (唐效麒) as Arm China’s interim co-CEOs.
Wu did not respond to e-mails and a message sent via his LinkedIn profile seeking comment.
Arm China yesterday on WeChat said that the executive remained in charge.
“In accordance with relevant laws and regulations, Allen Wu continues to serve as chairman and CEO,” the post read.
Softbank in 2016 acquired Arm for US$32 billion in one of its largest acquisitions, a deal intended to further Softbank founder Masayoshi Son’s ambition of creating a global Internet of Things ecosystem.
Arm China was formed in 2018, when Softbank sold 51 percent of the subsidiary to a consortium that included China Investment Corp (中國投資), the Silk Road Fund and Singaporean state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte.
It operates offices in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai, and acts as an intermediary between Arm in the UK and clients, such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為), in the world’s largest smartphone market.
Arm licenses the fundamentals of chips for companies that make their own semiconductors and also sells processor designs.
Most of the world’s smartphones depend on Arm’s technology, and it is trying to expand into servers and PCs.
The company has been ensnared in Washington’s campaign against Huawei because of its central role in semiconductor architecture.
That conflict escalated after Washington last year prohibited the sale of US software and circuitry to Huawei, a key Arm client.
The British company has said it would comply with the so-called US Entity List restrictions.
Local media have cited Wu as saying his company would continue to work with Huawei.
Arm continues to supply technology to Huawei unit HiSilicon Technologies Co (海思半導體), but it is unclear if it can license future designs to the Chinese company.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
RSS