Business | Arm twisting and turning

Why everyone wants Arm

The British chip designer’s modest size belies its central role in the digital revolution

STMicroelectronics STM32F205 integrated circuit microchips (IC's), designed by ARM Ltd., in a storage tray at CSI Electronic Manufacturing Services Ltd. in Witham, U.K., on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. The global chip shortage is going from bad to worse with automakers on three continents joining tech giants Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in flagging production cuts and lost revenue from the crisis. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Jun 22nd 2022

Tech giants, governments, trustbusters, investors: all eyes are on the much-anticipated stockmarket listing of Arm. Despite the recent rout in tech stocks, SoftBank, the Japanese group that paid $32bn for the British chip designer in 2016, still plans to refloat its shares by next March. On May 30th Cristiano Amon, boss of Qualcomm, an American chipmaker, told the Financial Times he would like to create a consortium with rivals like Intel or Samsung, either to buy a controlling stake in Arm or to purchase it outright—as Nvidia, another American firm, tried to do in 2020 in an abortive $40bn deal. Some British politicians argue that Arm is so critical that the government should take a controlling “golden share”. On June 14th it was reported that, perhaps in response, SoftBank was considering a secondary listing in London alongside the primary one in New York.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Why everyone wants Arm”