Arm創始人致信約翰遜：不為國家利益進行此交易，您將成為把英國變成美國附庸國的人_風聞

來源： 芯視點

今日，Nvidia宣佈以400億美元的價格收購IP公司Arm，但這引起了Arm聯合創始人Hermann Hauser的強烈回應。在早前，他接受媒體採訪的時候曾表示，將Arm賣給Nvidia將會是一個行業災難。而在今天交易宣佈之後，他直接發表了一個公開信，要求政府“救救”Arm。

以下是公開信譯文：

尊敬的首相，

作為arm的創始人之一，我（指代本文作者Hermann Hauser）非常關注Arm出售給英偉達這個交易，而這封信則是我在劍橋的同事和英國的金融和電子產業的人共同簽署的。

首先，我們擔心成千上萬名Arm員工在劍橋的工作受到影響。當總部遷往美國時，這將不可避免地導致英國失去工作機會和影響力，正如卡夫（Kraft）當初收購吉百利（Cadbury）時所看到的那樣。

其次，將Arm出售給Nvidia將破壞Arm的商業模式的根本，該模式原本可以被稱為半導體行業的“瑞士”，與500多家被許可人以平等的方式交易。他們大多數是Nvidia的競爭對手，當中有不少英國公司。

第三，也是最重要的，那就是從長遠來看，這是國家經濟主權的問題。

Arm是英國僅存的領先技術公司，Arm在手機微處理器方面佔據主導地位。它的市場份額超過95％。英國受到谷歌，Facebook，亞馬遜，Netflix，蘋果等公司在美國技術領域的統治。由於美國總統在與中國的貿易戰將技術優勢“武器化”，因此除非英國擁有自己的討價還價武器，否則英國將成為附帶受害者。Arm為蘋果，三星，索尼，華為以及幾乎世界上所有其他品牌的智能手機提供動力，因此可以對他們施加影響。

將Arm出售給Nvidia意味着，Arm將受到美國CFIUS法規的約束。英國電子行業有數百家公司，僱用數以萬計的人在其產品中使用ARM。其中許多產品出口到包括中國在內的全球主要市場，那就意味着他們都必須遵守美國CFIUS法規。

這使英國處於令人難以置信的立場，即關於允許Arm出售給誰的決定權將在白宮而不是唐寧街。主權曾經主要是一個地理問題，但是現在經濟主權同樣重要。將英國最強大的貿易武器交還給美國正在使英國成為美國的附庸國。

為此我們認為，必須滿足以下三個條件才能完成這筆交易。且它們都必須具有法律約束力，否則將無用：

1、劍橋的工作保障。

2、Nvidia不得享有比其他Arm客户更優惠的待遇。

3、英國必須獲得美國CFIUS法規的豁免，以確保英國公司不受限制地使用我們自己的微處理器技術。

出售給Nvidia的Arm的自然選擇是將Arm在倫敦證券交易所公開上市，並再次使其成為英國擁有的公司，並擁有黃金股以保障國家經濟安全。由於您已經花了5億英鎊幫助OneWeb走出第11章，對於英國來説，這並不像Arm那麼重要，因此您可以花12億英鎊作為主要投資者在倫敦證券交易所進行IPO。首次公開募股一直是軟銀宣佈獲得流動性資金的途徑。

如果您不為國家利益而進行此項交易，歷史將不記你是將英國帶出歐洲的人，而是記住你是那個將英國變成美國附庸國的人。

以下為英文公開信原文：

Dear Prime Minister,

As one of the founders of Arm I am extremely concerned about the proposed sale of Arm to Nvidia. This concern is shared by many of my colleagues in Cambridge, the UK financial and electronics industry who are all co-signing this letter.

Firstly, we are concerned about the impact on jobs in Cambridge where thousands of Arm employees work. When the headquarters move to the US this will inevitably lead to the loss of jobs and influence in the UK as we have seen with the Cadbury takeover by Kraft.

Secondly, the sale of Arm to Nvidia will destroy the very basis of Arm’s business model which is to be the Switzerland of the semiconductor industry dealing in an even-handed way with its over 500 licensees. Most of them are Nvidia’s competitors. Among them are many UK companies.

Thirdly, and most importantly for the long term, it is an issue of national economic sovereignty:

Arm is the only remaining UK technology company, with a dominant position in mobile phone microprocessors. It has a market share of over 95%. The UK has suffered from American technology dominance by companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Apple and others. As the American president has weaponised technology dominance in his trade war with China, the UK will become collateral damage unless it has its own trade weapons to bargain with. Arm powers the smartphones of Apple, Samsung, Sony, Huawei and practically every other brand in the world and therefore can exert influence on all of them.

A sale to Nvidia will mean that Arm becomes subject to the US CFIUS regulations. There are hundreds of companies in the UK electronics industry employing tens of thousands of people who use ARMs in their products. Many of them export to major global markets including China. They will all have to comply with the US CFIUS regulations.

This puts Britain in the invidious position that the decision about who Arm is allowed to sell to will be made in the White House and not in Downing Street. Sovereignty used to be mainly a geographic issue, but now economic sovereignty is equally important. Surrendering UK’s most powerful trade weapon to the US is making Britain a US vassal state.

There are three conditions that are imperative for this deal to be allowed to go through.

They all have to be legally binding or they are useless:

1、Job guarantees for Cambridge.

2、Nvidia must not gain any preferential treatment over other Arm licensees.

3、Britain must get an exemption from the US CFIUS regulation so that UK companies are guaranteed unfettered access to our own microprocessor technology.

The natural alternative to an Arm sale to Nvidia is to take Arm public on the London Stock Exchange and make it a British owned company again with a Golden Share for national economic security. As you have spent £500m to help OneWeb out of Chapter 11, which arguably is not as important to Britain as Arm, you could spend £1-2bn as the anchor investor for an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. An IPO was always the declared route to liquidity for Softbank.

If you do not act on this transaction in the national interest, history will remember you not as the person who took Britain out of Europe but the person who delivered Britain into American vassalage.

Yours sincerely

Dr Hermann Hauser FRS, KBE

PS.: To co-sign this letter go to www.savearm.co.uk