A number of technology giants intend to participate in the Arm IPO

In May of this year, Arm completed the requisite documentation for its initial public offering (IPO), harboring aspirations to commence public trading later in the year. The esteemed Nasdaq was chosen as the securities exchange for the offering, with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays Bank, and Mizuho Financial Group orchestrating the IPO. This event is poised to be one of the largest IPOs in the United States in approximately a decade. Subsequent rumors intimated that both Intel and Nvidia were keen to position themselves as cornerstone investors in Arm’s IPO.

According to reports from Nikkie Asia, a plethora of technological titans have expressed interest in participating in Arm’s IPO, including not only Intel and Nvidia but also Amazon, Apple, and Samsung. Bloomberg suggests that Arm may amass funds in the region of $10 billion, with an approximate valuation ranging between $60 billion and $70 billion.

Over the past few months, SoftBank Group, which holds a controlling interest in Arm, has been engaged in negotiations with prospective investors regarding participation in the IPO. One strategy has involved proffering medium-to-long-term equity to these investors, ensuring stock price stability during the listing period. Given that many technology giants opt to employ Arm’s technology to construct SoCs, there exists ample justification for investment. Entities such as Apple or Amazon, having invested significant capital in shaping ecosystems around Arm architecture, may exhibit an enhanced interest in the further development of Arm’s Instruction Set Architecture (ISA).

SoftBank Group acquired Arm in 2016 for $32 billion, and in 2020 intended to sell it to Nvidia for an estimated $40 billion, only to be stymied by various regulatory bodies. The recent operational condition of SoftBank Group has been less than optimal, and Arm, despite its status as one of the industry’s apex entities, has not yielded substantial returns.