ARM being put up for sale is big news in itself, but Nvidia emerging as a contender? Well, that's huge. According to the hottest rumor in the tech world right now, it's all true, too.

Bloomberg reports that Nvidia has approached ARM's parent company, Softbank, about a possible acquisition, according to "people familiar with the matter. If Nvidia's apparent interest leads to a takeover, it would be the largest-ever acquisition in the chip industry and would certainly be subject to regulatory scrutiny.

This is important to note that Nvidia recently surpassed Intel in market capitalization for the first time in history, making the GPU maker more valuable than the CPU maker. I say "was" because Intel's market cap has since bounced back in front of Nvidia. At the time of this writing, Intel's market cap is $258.49 billion, with Nvidia close behind at $256.79 billion.

The larger point is that Nvidia is essentially worth as much as Intel. Both are giants in the chip industry. ARM, on the other hand, powers almost every kind of device imaginable. From smartphones and smart speakers to wireless routers, you likely own some hardware that runs on ARM.

ARM's value lies in licensing its intellectual property (IP) to a wide range of companies, including AMD, Apple, Broadcom, Intel, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Qualcomm. These companies design and manufacture chips based on ARM's IP.

Your PC, on the other hand, runs on the x86 architecture, which has nothing to do with ARM. Nevertheless, ARM is a force to be reckoned with, with its broad reach across electronics, and ARM has also spared no effort to penetrate the data center market with its scalable server designs. On top of that, Apple recently announced a two-year transition plan to incorporate ARM-based designs into all Macs, supplanting Intel in the process.

Incidentally, Softbank reportedly approached Apple about acquiring ARM, but the Cupertino company passed, reportedly because ARM's licensing model does not mesh with Apple's own business practices. Furthermore, an acquisition by Apple could further raise regulators' eyebrows in light of recent events.

Softbank and Nvidia have a history. SoftBank's Vision Fund was one of Nvidia's largest equity holders in 2017, with a stake of about $4 billion. However, following the cryptocurrency crash, SoftBank sold all of its Nvidia shares.

Any company that acquires ARM will immediately have some leverage over large companies in the tech industry. This includes Nvidia, which makes GPUs for gaming as well as chips for data centers, self-driving cars, and AI applications.

It is not certain whether Nvidia will acquire ARM, nor is it known whether another company will. It is possible that Softbank will take ARM public. But the possibility is certainly there and interesting.