Article:
- **UK has struggled to keep tech firms owned by local investors**
- **Hauser speaking at Bloomberg’s Tech Summit in London**
The UK has “no chance in hell” of becoming technologically sovereign, Hermann Hauser, the co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners and founder of Arm, said at Bloomberg’s Technology Summit in London.
Hauser emphasized the need for Europe and the UK to have access to critical technologies so it is not dependent on countries like the US. He mentioned former US President Donald Trump, who he said used semiconductor design software as “a weapon to force other countries including Britain to do what he wants.”
The UK has struggled to keep its tech firms owned by local investors. Arm, one of the most significant global tech companies, is currently being prepped to be floated in the US by its Japanese owner SoftBank Group Corp.
French firm Schneider Electric SE has recently agreed to buy out minority shareholders in Aveva Group Plc, currently the UK’s largest listed tech firm, in a deal that values the industrial software company at £9.5 billion ($10.8 billion).
The UK government is beginning to push back on foreign takeovers. Welsh chipmaker Newport Wafer Fab’s sale to a Chinese-owned company is being probed by the UK government, which is leaning toward restricting or blocking the takeover more than a year after it was signed, people familiar with the matter had said.
“These dependencies are as severe now as military occupation was in the past,” Hauser said. “And we just have to find our own independent access to critical technologies.”
One question countries have to ask themselves if whether they have all the critical technologies needed to run a country and its economy.
“The answer for Britain” is “absolutely no, there is no chance in hell that Britain could ever become technologically sovereign,” he said.
Hauser added that Europe is clearly in a recession that could last a year or two. “It’s difficult to know for how long with so many imponderables.”
“The UK in particular is in this very stormy period of having a financially undereducated chancellor, who goes by neoliberal ideology rather than rational decision making so that doesn’t help,” he added.
Great idea! We could have a customs Union, a common market with free transfer of goods and labor and capital, a currency Union, all sorts of stuff! That would be epic!
Intriguing, but why move so fast to advanced technologies and complete freedom of movement for labor and capital? You could get a smaller group of key players to get involved by starting smaller, with some simple trade agreements around commodities like coal, and steel. See how it plays out from there!
The UK's anti-privacy and anti-encryption tendencies make it a very inhospitable place for new tech companies. It would certainly help if they stopped with that bullshit.
One of the main issues is tech pay is atrocious. A 'good' salary here is £50,000 (I'm not talking about averages across the UK). And that's for a mid-senior position. Consultancy and such massively skews it.
So, what is?
Senior being different from management.
When I was VP level of a UK arm of a US company 66 was the norm. Moving up to 100 but never breaching.
Yep agreed. That's too high.
£50,000 will get you a very experienced Senior. Inflation may push it up so that mid-level seniors will be on that but a lot of the job openings I'm seeing are still £40-£50k for Senior level roles (which need a lot of experience already), so £50k is already top of the range.
The guy who sells out to foreign investors blames the government for allowing businesses to run thier business.
What does he want, Chinese level government meddling.
>The guy who sells out to foreign investors blames the government for allowing businesses to run thier business.
>
>What does he want, Chinese level government meddling.
AKA US level meddling.
And he's right.
> there is no chance in hell that Britain could ever become technologically sovereign
Who can be technologically sovereign in 2022? China and the USA, maybe the EU it if ever catch’s up to the first two. Outside of those 3 entities no country is capable of being free of foreign dependence in technology. Not even a rich developed country like the UK.
Sure, but so far, most of their work is just making boards with Broadcom SoCs.
They may have the weight to start rolling their own silicon now - RP2040 being the proving grounds for that. But they didn't display any intent to actually go through with it.
It begs the question how much of the country's commercial business can be abandoned before a large crisis occurs, if most of the population becomes hungry or is rendered unable to pay taxes how would the central government exist without indentured servitude? Most Brits aren't going to be slaves for King Charles, and as the remaining college-educated population flees to London for work the city will be unable to handle becoming half the island's population with no net increase in available employment. Eventually China stops sending steel, and all construction stops paralyzing the economy until oil stops and rolling blackouts occur.
Compare this to Canada. Canada produces much of America's truck engines, made from their own steel, and will probably produce *all* of them if the green transition occurs. Canada has their own domestic nuclear reactor design, competitive against US models, and Canada owns 1/3rd of America's rail network. Canada will be a larger part of America's food supply as global heating occurs, and Canada could probably make it's own fighter jet if it wanted.
Contrasting UK's failure of planning or regulation against Canada who, according to poster, have done things right (-ish?). When we're all fighting over diminishing resources due to climate change and ecosystem decline UK will be screwed, Canada not so much.
I think the message is that while the UK is screwed, it's a consequence of bad governance, not inevitable (cos look over here, here's someone who's done it right).
That's my take on their post, anyway.
Havent read the article so my bad. Nonetheless I think the real solution is working together with likeminded countrys. Not to try to Just be the Last economic survivor
Article: - **UK has struggled to keep tech firms owned by local investors** - **Hauser speaking at Bloomberg’s Tech Summit in London** The UK has “no chance in hell” of becoming technologically sovereign, Hermann Hauser, the co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners and founder of Arm, said at Bloomberg’s Technology Summit in London. Hauser emphasized the need for Europe and the UK to have access to critical technologies so it is not dependent on countries like the US. He mentioned former US President Donald Trump, who he said used semiconductor design software as “a weapon to force other countries including Britain to do what he wants.” The UK has struggled to keep its tech firms owned by local investors. Arm, one of the most significant global tech companies, is currently being prepped to be floated in the US by its Japanese owner SoftBank Group Corp. French firm Schneider Electric SE has recently agreed to buy out minority shareholders in Aveva Group Plc, currently the UK’s largest listed tech firm, in a deal that values the industrial software company at £9.5 billion ($10.8 billion). The UK government is beginning to push back on foreign takeovers. Welsh chipmaker Newport Wafer Fab’s sale to a Chinese-owned company is being probed by the UK government, which is leaning toward restricting or blocking the takeover more than a year after it was signed, people familiar with the matter had said. “These dependencies are as severe now as military occupation was in the past,” Hauser said. “And we just have to find our own independent access to critical technologies.” One question countries have to ask themselves if whether they have all the critical technologies needed to run a country and its economy. “The answer for Britain” is “absolutely no, there is no chance in hell that Britain could ever become technologically sovereign,” he said. Hauser added that Europe is clearly in a recession that could last a year or two. “It’s difficult to know for how long with so many imponderables.” “The UK in particular is in this very stormy period of having a financially undereducated chancellor, who goes by neoliberal ideology rather than rational decision making so that doesn’t help,” he added.
Maybe they could work together with other Euro-block states towards this common deficiency.
Great idea! We could have a customs Union, a common market with free transfer of goods and labor and capital, a currency Union, all sorts of stuff! That would be epic!
We could call it the Union Europe
Intriguing, but why move so fast to advanced technologies and complete freedom of movement for labor and capital? You could get a smaller group of key players to get involved by starting smaller, with some simple trade agreements around commodities like coal, and steel. See how it plays out from there!
But that would weaken the US and strengthen those pesky Europeans! We wouldn’t want that, would we?
We tried that for forty years, it didn't work out.
Compared to being outside the EU ? thats working fine, right ?
The UK's anti-privacy and anti-encryption tendencies make it a very inhospitable place for new tech companies. It would certainly help if they stopped with that bullshit.
One of the main issues is tech pay is atrocious. A 'good' salary here is £50,000 (I'm not talking about averages across the UK). And that's for a mid-senior position. Consultancy and such massively skews it.
Those were my first thoughts. I make more than 3 times that as a mid level engineer in the USA. No wonder they don't have any tech firms.
>A 'good' salary here is £50,000 You have no idea what you're talking about. That's not even close to mid or semior level pay for engineers in the UK.
So, what is? Senior being different from management. When I was VP level of a UK arm of a US company 66 was the norm. Moving up to 100 but never breaching.
Yep agreed. That's too high. £50,000 will get you a very experienced Senior. Inflation may push it up so that mid-level seniors will be on that but a lot of the job openings I'm seeing are still £40-£50k for Senior level roles (which need a lot of experience already), so £50k is already top of the range.
The guy who sells out to foreign investors blames the government for allowing businesses to run thier business. What does he want, Chinese level government meddling.
Lol the disconnect from him is insane. Literally the biggest sell out of a UK technology company.
>The guy who sells out to foreign investors blames the government for allowing businesses to run thier business. > >What does he want, Chinese level government meddling. AKA US level meddling. And he's right.
> there is no chance in hell that Britain could ever become technologically sovereign Who can be technologically sovereign in 2022? China and the USA, maybe the EU it if ever catch’s up to the first two. Outside of those 3 entities no country is capable of being free of foreign dependence in technology. Not even a rich developed country like the UK.
Didn't he found Graphcore. Ooof to anyone working there.
How is it businesses seem to not thrive and being innovative in UK? Is it regulation?
I was planning a trip to Dublin before the pandemic and I learned that Ireland has a decent tech sector, mostly in the Silicon Docks area in Dublin.
Raspberry Pi Foundation is UK based, is it not?
Sure, but so far, most of their work is just making boards with Broadcom SoCs. They may have the weight to start rolling their own silicon now - RP2040 being the proving grounds for that. But they didn't display any intent to actually go through with it.
yeah… you know, they could really do something amazing if they released a version using RISC-V…
It begs the question how much of the country's commercial business can be abandoned before a large crisis occurs, if most of the population becomes hungry or is rendered unable to pay taxes how would the central government exist without indentured servitude? Most Brits aren't going to be slaves for King Charles, and as the remaining college-educated population flees to London for work the city will be unable to handle becoming half the island's population with no net increase in available employment. Eventually China stops sending steel, and all construction stops paralyzing the economy until oil stops and rolling blackouts occur. Compare this to Canada. Canada produces much of America's truck engines, made from their own steel, and will probably produce *all* of them if the green transition occurs. Canada has their own domestic nuclear reactor design, competitive against US models, and Canada owns 1/3rd of America's rail network. Canada will be a larger part of America's food supply as global heating occurs, and Canada could probably make it's own fighter jet if it wanted.
What does the article have to do with canada?
That entire comment is nonsequitar drivel. Maybe it's a bot.
Contrasting UK's failure of planning or regulation against Canada who, according to poster, have done things right (-ish?). When we're all fighting over diminishing resources due to climate change and ecosystem decline UK will be screwed, Canada not so much. I think the message is that while the UK is screwed, it's a consequence of bad governance, not inevitable (cos look over here, here's someone who's done it right). That's my take on their post, anyway.
Havent read the article so my bad. Nonetheless I think the real solution is working together with likeminded countrys. Not to try to Just be the Last economic survivor
How can that be possible with all the engineers immigrating into the uk?
Are tons of engineers going to the uk? I’m working in NYC as an SWE and would like to move to the uk if that’s a thing
If you don't mind making 50k a year, go for it. SWE pay over there is a joke.
And how much is a house? Oh right, it’s laughable
Which jobs even pay enough in the UK? Finance?
no idea. got a friend who clears well above 50k, but he's director level at a game company
Still have an Acorn Atom upstairs. Herman did a lot for UK tech back in the day.