Chip designer arm – initial public offering – economy

The chip designer Arm, whose technology is found in practically all smartphones, has taken the first step on the stock market. The company, which belongs to the Japanese technology group Softbank, submitted a confidential draft of a stock exchange prospectus to the US regulator SEC. Softbank shares edged higher in Tokyo on Monday. The volume and price of the ARM share placement will be determined at a later date, it said.

Softbank bought the British company in 2016 for $32 billion. A sale to the chip group Nvidia failed due to concerns from competition watchdogs. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son has previously indicated that he intends to retain a majority stake in Arm after the share placement.

Apple and Samsung, among others, are developing the processors for their smartphones based on the chip architectures designed by Arm. The semiconductor company Qualcomm, whose chips power many Android phones, also uses it.

The arm designs prevailed in smartphones against chip systems from Intel – partly because they use less power. Now chips based on Arm architectures are also being used in data centers, and Apple is using them in its new Mac computers.

source site