Chip designer ARM filed for an IPO last month and insiders speaking to Reuters report that many major tech companies are interested. The initial public offering will be at a valuation between $50 billion and $55 billion, 10% of shares have been set aside for partners (SoftBank will keep the other 90%).
The list of partners includes Nvidia, which attempted to acquire ARM in a $40 billion deal back in 2020, a deal that fell through due to regulator concerns.
Other backers include companies that are heavily involved with ARM-based devices: Apple, Alphabet, Samsung. Then there are the two x86 giants, Intel and AMD. Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys are on the list as well, plus there are other portential partners.
Apple and Nvidia are said to have agreed to buying between $25 million to $100 million worth of shares each. Interestingly, Amazon, which was initially going to invest as well, has pulled out according to insiders (Amazon designs Gravitron processors for AWS servers).
There’s no mention of Qualcomm participating in ARM’s IPO, even though the company pondered forming a consortium with others to buy ARM. We shouldn’t read too much into that – the new stockholders will not be given a seat on ARM’s board nor the ability to dictate the company’s strategy. The goal seems to be to make it harder for one company to take over ARM completely (like Nvidia tried to do).
