Arm is developing its own chips
According to the Financial Times, chip designer Arm is developing its own chips while planning to go public, prioritizing increased revenue and profit. Previously, there were reports that Arm intended to modify its licensing model, preparing to charge a percentage of patent fees based on the sales price of the end product. However, this approach has faced opposition from OEM manufacturers such as Xiaomi and OPPO.
Sources claim that Arm will collaborate with manufacturing partners to develop new chips and conduct cutting-edge chip production at their Cambridge headquarters in the UK.
Traditionally, Arm has been responsible for chip design, providing design solutions and technology to downstream manufacturers such as Qualcomm, MediaTek, and companies like Apple and Google. Qualcomm and MediaTek improve and produce end products based on design blueprints for sale to OEM manufacturers, while Apple and Google design and manufacture chips for their own use.
This collaborative relationship allows Arm to focus solely on chip design, rather than directly participating in semiconductor development and production, enabling downstream manufacturers to independently research and produce various types of chips.
Arm has previously cooperated with Samsung to produce some Arm-branded chips for developers’ testing purposes. However, the situation has now changed; Arm aims to research, develop, and produce chips themselves to sell directly to OEM manufacturers, which could prove to be a fatal blow to Qualcomm and MediaTek.
The Financial Times reports that Arm began developing their latest chip six months ago, with a larger team assembled to execute the task, targeting chip manufacturers rather than software developers. This signifies that Arm will collaborate directly with chip manufacturers to develop Arm-branded chips, and considering their recent partnership with Intel to manufacture chips for Arm’s downstream manufacturers, Arm could directly cooperate with Intel to manufacture their own branded chips.
Arm’s product range encompasses not only smartphones but also laptops and other electronic devices. However, at this stage, it appears to be limited to prototype chip development. In response to these reports, insiders close to Arm claim that there are no plans to sell or license the product, only to develop prototypes. Arm officials declined to comment.
Currently, 95% of smartphones use Arm-based chips. If Arm enters the market to produce their own chips, it would not only deal a devastating blow to Qualcomm and MediaTek but also impact the entire industry, as it would be relatively easy for Arm to establish a monopoly.
It is worth mentioning the open-source RISC-V, which Google announced would be supported as a primary platform on the Android system. RISC-V has not received adequate attention from Google over the years, but Google’s support for RISC-V is undoubtedly good news; however, it remains to be seen if this support comes too late.
