Intel has announced a delay of more than a year in its 7nm chip manufacturing process, which gives an idea of the reasons why Apple recently announced it was abandoning the US company’s chips and would make its own and use ARM architecture instead.

英特尔已经宣布推迟其7nm芯片制造流程 超过一年的时间，此举说明了苹果公司最近宣布放弃美国公司芯片并自行生产并使用ARM架构的原因。 代替。

Intel’s problems are not new: this is not the first time the company has announced delays. This time, however, is more serious, considering the importance of the 7nm manufacturing process and that competitors such as AMD have been offering the market the same chips, which consistently improve on the performance of Intel’s, leading to a sharp drop in share value. For Apple, Intel had clearly become a bad bet, and going for other types of architecture over which, in addition, it could have higher levels of control made complete sense.

英特尔的问题并不新鲜：这不是该公司第一次宣布延迟。 但是，考虑到7nm制造Craft.io的重要性以及AMD等竞争对手一直在向市场提供相同的芯片，这一次会变得更加严重，这些芯片会不断提高Intel的性能，从而导致股价急剧下跌。 对于苹果公司而言，英特尔显然已成为一个坏选择，并且转向其他类型的体系结构，此外，它完全可以具有更高的控制水平。

However, the microchip market is is a complex one right now: Japanese conglomerate Softbank, which acquired ARM in July 2016 for $32 billion, says that in the midst of a strong disinvestment to try to amortize the enormous losses of its technology investment fund it intends to look for a buyer for the microprocessor architecture design company.

然而，微芯片市场现在是一个复杂的市场：日本大型企业集团软银 于2016年7月以320亿美元的价格收购了ARM ，称其正大力投资以试图分摊其打算投资的技术投资基金的巨额亏损为微处理器架构设计公司寻找买家 。

Who would be interested in acquiring ARM, a company that in 2016 had a turnover of around $1.5 billion in licensing its designs and technology to device manufacturers, who pay a small amount for each unit sold? Softbank paid 21 times its turnover, and has now offered it to Apple, for which it is obviously strategic. But Apple has said no: it’s not in the business of licensing technologies and, moreover, trying to do so, considering that many of its hypothetical clients would be many of its competitors, could put it in a very difficult situation given that the antitrust authorities on both sides of the ocean now have it in their sights.

谁会对收购ARM感兴趣？ARM在2016年的营业额约为15亿美元，公司将其设计和技术许可给设备制造商，而设备制造商则为所售出的每个产品支付少量费用？ 软银支付的营业额是其营业额的21倍 ，现在已将其提供给苹果，这显然具有战略意义。 但是苹果公司没有表示 ：它不从事许可技术业务，此外，考虑到其许多假设客户将是其许多竞争对手，因此尝试这样做是可能的，因为反托拉斯当局会使其处于非常困难的境地海洋的 两边现在都可以看到它。

All indications are that for Apple, which is working hard to advance the microchip industry and has a strong mutually advantageous partnership with Taiwan’s TSMC, one of the two leading microchip manufacturers, the best thing that could happen to ARM is for it to stay put: Softbank is a relatively “neutral” company in the technology market, which has not interfered with it, and has merely provided it with the resources it needed to operate. The only problem, of course, is that Softbank needs money, and ARM, which was once very expensive, may be worth a lot. But what if it were a competitor of Apple that could, for example, redirect its strategy or priorities in ways that were less interesting to Cupertino, or that could, for example, raise the price of its designs? Is Nvidia a prospective buyer? What if it were acquired by Google? Or Qualcomm, with which Apple has already had problems?

所有迹象都表明，对于正在努力推动微芯片产业发展并与台湾台积电(TSMC)拥有牢固的互利合作伙伴关系的苹果， 台积电是两家领先的微芯片制造商之一 ，对于ARM来说，最好的事情就是保持现状：在技​​术市场上，软银是一家相对“中性”的公司，它没有对其进行干预，只是为其提供了运营所需的资源。 当然，唯一的问题是，软银需要资金，而曾经非常昂贵的ARM可能物有所值。 但是，如果它是苹果的竞争对手，例如可以以对库比蒂诺不太感兴趣的方式重定向其战略或优先事项，又可以例如提高其设计价格，该怎么办？ Nvidia是潜在买家吗？ 如果它被Google收购怎么办？ 还是苹果已经遇到问题的高通公司？

How did a company that doesn’t manufacture anything tangible, that does not make microchips, but limits itself to designing its architectures, achieve such a central and complex role in the technology ecosystem? Looking to the future, we are also talking about a company with enormous potential: the internet of things means that everything around us will have a microchip in it, which will multiply both its importance and the company’s turnover, based on “many little bits” of all kinds of connected objects.

不生产任何有形产品，不生产微芯片，但仅限于设计架构的公司如何在技术生态系统中发挥如此核心和复杂的作用？ 展望未来，我们还谈论的是一家潜力巨大的公司： 物联网意味着我们周围的一切都将拥有一个微型芯片，基于“很多点”，它将使重要性和公司营业额倍增各种连接的对象。

From a strategic viewpoint, the microchip sector is a fascinating environment worth taking the time to understanding. Is there a better candidate out there to increase the value of a company like ARM? And how important today are not just the ubiquitous microchips, but the companies that design their architecture?

从战略角度来看，微芯片领域是一个值得花时间去理解的迷人环境。 有没有更好的人选来增加像ARM这样的公司的价值？ 如今，不仅无处不在的微芯片，还有设计其架构的公司有多重要？

This article was previously published on Forbes.

本文先前已在《福布斯》上发表。

(En español, aquí)

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