Arm won’t just design, but also manufacture chips as per a new FT report. The British company which is known for selling design IPs to brands like Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, etc. is aiming for vertical expansion into the chip-making business. Here’s what we know so far about this.
Arm’s semiconductor business plans
As already mentioned, Arm's semiconductor plans include not just designing, but also manufacturing chips, states the report. However, since it’s new to the game, it will seek help from manufacturing partners.
The report reveals Arm has created a "solutions engineering" team that’s tasked with the development of prototype chips. These chipsets will be used in mobile phones, laptops, and other electronic devices.
The company has reportedly made some strides so far. It has been working on an advanced chip for the last 6 months. This is said to be a step above the current chips.
Once its IPO happens sometime this year, Arm could announce its efforts to the public.
History of Arm in the semiconductor business
Acorn Archimedes
Recently, Arm signed a partnership with Intel whereby Arm’s partners involved in semiconductor manufacturing can use Intel foundries to make the chips. The foundries will be in particular used for making mobile SoCs in the beginning.
This and the new report of its loftier business plans all seem to have been set in motion post the collapse of its deal with Nvidia. Nvidia was going to buy Arm from its current parent, viz. Japan’s Softbank. This could have been the biggest deal on record valued at $40 billion. But regulatory challenges pushed it to fall apart.
Still, Arm has been doing well in terms of revenue from its server-chips business, chip sales in the automotive sector, and Arm V9-based processors in smartphones. Recently, it has also announced its intention to raise the royalty and licencising fees.
So in its over 3-decade existence, the company named ARM (short for Acorn RISC Machine), whose first product was a RISC processor for a personal computer called Acorn Archimedes, has its design-based chips in almost every major electronic product.
Now only time can tell if it manages to directly compete with its customers, and showcase the actual potential of an Arm-based chip. Let’s see where it goes from here.
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