SoftBank plans to take the UK tech company public. Regulatory hurdles halted a deal to sell it to US chipmaker Nvidia Corp.
Arm, which manufactures the basic blueprint used to design the chips, posted revenue of $2.7 billion last year, up 35% from the previous year. Licensing revenue increased 61% to $1.13 billion and royalties, which track the number of chips sold using Arm technology, increased 20% to $1.54 billion .
Mr Haas said the licensing business is about “companies spending money with Arm to design chips for the future”.
Asked about the revenue outlook, he said, “We’ve never made more than $1 billion, so I would say that’s a good leading indicator of demand for the product.”
Haas said 29.2 billion chips using Arm technology were shipped last year, including nearly 8 billion in the fourth quarter. He said Arm’s focus on the automotive sector three or four years ago is paying off and that segment revenues have more than doubled in the past year thanks to electrification and increased horsepower. calculation of cars.
“It probably would have been better if there had been more supply,” Haas said of Arm’s auto business.
Haas declined to talk about the potential value Arm could achieve in the stock market. In September 2020, Nvidia offered to pay up to $40 billion for Arm. SoftBank bought it for $32 billion.
Haas also reaffirmed that Arm has resolved a public dispute within its China joint venture, by ousting former chief executive Allen Wu. He said the joint venture, Arm China, accounts for about 20% of the company’s revenue.
“One thing I can say is that we had great results last year and it wouldn’t have been possible if the Chinese JV hadn’t worked well,” he said. .