Arm’s plans to list on the London Stock Exchange may fall through

On February 8, 2022, Nvidia and SoftBank announced the termination of the previous transaction, with Nvidia officially abandoning the acquisition of Arm. SoftBank then announced that it is preparing to list Arm in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, which will be the largest IPO in the semiconductor industry.

In the eyes of many, Nvidia has suffered a major setback on the way forward, but Arm may be hit even more. Later, Arm’s new CEO Rene Haas said in a memo to employees that he would cut about 12% to 15% of employees in the United States and the United Kingdom, involving nearly 1,000 jobs. Some analysts pointed out that Arm’s layoffs are to more effectively control costs and pave the way for the next IPO. Later, in order to speed up the listing, Arm transferred the shares of Arm Technology to a joint venture jointly held by Arm and Softbank to avoid being affected by the dispute over the control of Arm Technology.

After months of hard work, Arm appears to be ready for the road to an IPO, but it backfired, and with the recent political turmoil in the UK, Arm’s plans to list on the London Stock Exchange may fall through. According to Digitimes, with the departure of investment minister Gerry Grimstone and digital minister Chris Philip, who led Arm’s London IPO, SoftBank has shelved its original plan.

Industry insiders in the UK previously estimated that Arm is now worth £30 billion. At the same time, some members of the British parliament believe that Arm should be listed in London, rather than New York or elsewhere, to ensure that national interests and investor interests are aligned and not compromised. But everything is hard to say now. It is rumored that the founder and CEO of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, hope that Arm can be listed on the Nasdaq in the United States, but it is not the final decision for the time being.