Do their actions match their words? ARM could have extended their ARMv7 ISA to also be 64-bit without much trouble at all (plenty of space in the ISA). Instead

Do their actions match their words? ARM could have extended their ARMv7 ISA to also be 64-bit without much trouble at all (plenty of space in the ISA). Instead, we got a ground up redesign that has more in common with MIPS64 than with ARMv7 (to the point that it's fascinating that ARM and some others bought MIPS just to get patent rights before immediately selling them off again). I'm sure the go-to individual here is Jim Keller. First, were his words free from constraint? If he said "x86 is crap and we should be using ARM or RISC-V" while working for those companies, how long would it take for him to be fired? Even if he were working at another company, saying that would burn a bridge that has kept him fed for decades. Would that be worth it? He later said that if he were designing a new chip from the ground up, he'd probably go with RISC-V. He then proceeded to do that when he went to work for TensTorrent even though licensing ARM cores and adding their custom units on the side would be cheaper and faster to market. Given his connections, working with the AMD custom division would also be possible and would not only save some time and money for the startup, but would also have a massive set of available and heavily-optimized software working from the very start which would save even more money. I'd say that his actions when free from corporate constraints show a definite opinion on the matter.