ARM Develops Advanced Prototype Chip, Venture Capital Funding Collapses in Europe, and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Relocates to Mayenne.

– ARM is developing an advanced prototype chip. According to the Financial Times, the SoftBank-owned chip designer is looking to accelerate its growth in preparation for an upcoming IPO. To achieve higher revenue, the company is developing its own chip to demonstrate its design capabilities. An engineering team – led by Kevork Kechichian who notably oversaw the development of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip – is working to design prototype chips for mobiles, laptops and other electronic devices, according to people familiar with the case. ARM has traditionally sold its designs to chipmakers, rather than getting directly involved in semiconductor production, which is a significant step forward for the British company. Rumors about Arm’s chip manufacturing initiatives have fueled fears in the semiconductor industry, which fears that if the company makes a good enough chip, it may seek to sell it in the future. and thus becomes a competitor of some of its biggest customers, such as MediaTek or Qualcomm. ARM has already built prototype chips with partners such as Samsung and TSMC, mainly to allow software developers to familiarize themselves with its products. However, several industry executives told the FT that its chip, which it began working on over the past six months, is “more advanced” than ever.

– Venture capital funding is collapsing in Europe. According to a recent Dealroom analysis of venture capital in Europe, just over 2,300 funding rounds closed in Q1 2023, the highest level since Q3 2016. year, “only” €14.3 billion was raised, a drop of 58% compared to €34 billion at the same time a year ago. A figure even lower than that of the first quarter of 2021 (€23.2 billion) and just above that of before Covid (€12.3 billion). The finetech sector was particularly hard hit by this depression, with an 83% decline in funds raised, or €2 billion compared to €9.7 billion a year earlier.

– Alcatel-Lucent Entreprise relocates to Mayenne. The network and telecom equipment manufacturer – belonging to China Huaxin – has signed an agreement with the subcontractor Cofidur Ems relating to the relocation of the production of its telephone exchanges to Laval in Mayenne. Under the terms of the agreement, skillfully staged with the participation of the Secretary of State for Digital Jean-Noël Barrot, Cofidur Ems will ensure the assembly and integration of the telephone exchanges of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (PABX activity) on one of the industrial sites. Quite a pirouette in the history of Alcatel-Lucent Entreprise which, under the rule of its former CEO Serge Tchuruk, had bet on the sale of a very large part of its industrial heritage in the early 2000s, thereby raising caused a real outcry among the unions and resulted in countless layoffs. After multiple restructurings, the group ended up betting on cloud services to recover, particularly in the field of unified communications and videoconferencing. “Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is pursuing its strategy of anchoring its industrial activity in France. After the inauguration of its offices last July in Illkirch, the relocation of our PABX activity to Laval is part of the French industrial revival. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is proud to participate concretely in the project to reindustrialize the French economy, which will be stronger and more sovereign,” said Nicolas Brunel, Executive Vice President of the Communications Division of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise and President of ALE International.