If ARM becomes a US subsidiary of a US company, it falls under the Cfius [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] regulations, Mr Hauser told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. That means that if hundreds of UK companies that incorporate ARM's technology in their products, want to sell it, and export it to anywhere in the world including China - which is a major market - the decision on whether they will be allowed to export it will be made in the White House and not in Downing Street. He added that he believed the pledge to retain and increase the number of UK jobs was meaningless unless UK ministers stepped in to make it legally enforceable. But ARM's chief executive played down the threat of export bans.