The IPO of ARM could take place as early as September, for a valuation of between 60 and 70 billion dollars.
It will undoubtedly be one of the major events of this end of the year in the world of new technologies.
After the failed sale to NVIDIA, ARM relaunches on the stock market
The British manufacturer, owned by the Japanese investment fund SoftBank, has announced its intention to enter the Nasdaq, and has filed the form and the documents necessary for its IPO, i.e. its IPO.
The valuation of ARM is estimated between 60 and 70 billion dollars, or about twice the price of 32 billion dollars spent by Softbank to afford the designer of microprocessors in 2016. The fund would also consider selling 10% of its shares during the initial public offering.
This follows the failed takeover of ARM by NVIDIA. SoftBank was ready to sell its business for $40 billion, but the acquisition came up against pressure from international regulators. The latter did not see with a good eye the fact that the manufacturer of graphics processors got their hands on the patents and strategic technologies of ARM, and blocked the transaction.
A strategic player for the technologies of today and tomorrow
ARM is not the same size as tech giants like NVIDIA, Microsoft or Intel. Its 2022 turnover is “only” $2.7 billion, for $637 million in profit.
Yet the company is absolutely central to the industry, since these system-on-chip designs are now used by almost the majority of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices in the world. ARM technologies are also entering the PC world, whether in Apple Macs or in server farms owned by AWS. The British company receives royalties on each microprocessor used by manufacturers.
The boom in artificial intelligence and its growing needs for computing power and dedicated chips could also do ARM’s business, while the smartphone market has been facing a continuous fall for several quarters.
SoftBank would also be in contact to bring in the big names in tech as investors on the occasion of the IPO of ARM. NVIDIA and Intel would be on board, but brands like Apple, Samsung, Alphabet (Google) and Amazon would also be in the running to inject money into the company.
Source : AnandTech
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