London The chip designer Arm, whose technology is in virtually all smartphones, wants to use the proceeds from its planned IPO to expand its business with the automotive industry, among other things. He also wants to make Arm stronger in chips for data centers and technology for displaying virtual worlds, company CEO Rene Haas told the “Financial Times” on Tuesday.
He was convinced that, despite the current downturn in tech stocks, Arm could successfully go public and stand on its own two feet. “The timing is good for us.“
The IPO is scheduled for next year after the takeover of the British company by the US industry giant Nvidia failed due to competition concerns. The previous owner, the Japanese technology group Softbank, is aiming for a share placement in London and New York, wrote the “Financial Times”.
A key obstacle to the IPO – the dispute with the head of Arm’s joint venture in China – has been resolved, Haas said. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son recently revealed that he wanted to retain a majority stake in Arm even after the share placement. Softbank bought Arm for $32 billion in 2016.
Based on the chip architectures designed by Arm, Apple and Samsung, among others, are developing the processors for their smartphones. The chip company Qualcomm, whose chips run many Android phones, also uses it.
The Arm designs prevailed in smartphones against chip systems from the semiconductor giant Intel – among other things because they require less power. Meanwhile, chips based on Arm architectures are also used in data centers, and Apple uses them in its new Mac computers.
