The fate of the “Switzerland of semiconductors”, ARM, worries Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm, the American chipmaker. The British designer of most chips manufactured in the world is about to be floated by its owner SoftBank. Qualcomm fears this will harm its precious independence.
The essential ARM
The ARM adventure never ends. After the failure of its acquisition by Nvidia, thanks or because of the intervention of the American, British, Chinese and European antitrust authorities, SoftBank, decided to sell the company, is considering its IPO.
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Qualcomm, one of ARM’s biggest customers via its Snapdragon chips that equip many smartphones, had already opposed Nvidia’s takeover. The company fears the new solution envisaged by the Japanese giant.
ARM occupies a unique position in the field of semiconductors. Cristiano Amon explains in the FinancialTimes it is a ” very important asset and it is an asset that will be essential to the development of our industry “.
The Cambridge-based company designs chips and then sells its licenses to manufacturers. Through its strategy of broadly granting these licenses to companies, regardless of their size or country of origin, ARM owns intellectual property on most of the chips manufactured in the world.
A central position that is all the more significant as the world struggles to emerge from a long-lasting shortage of semiconductors. Demand is also expected to increase significantly in the years to come.
Therefore, its takeover by a single manufacturer, in this case Nvidia, appeared to be an intolerable danger weighing on the designer’s neutrality. According to Qualcomm, an IPO would be a barely preferable solution.
The consortium dreamed up by Qualcomm will be complicated to implement
To guarantee the neutrality of ARM, Cristiano Amon defended with the FinancialTimes the creation of a large consortium of manufacturers. A proposal already put forward during the Nvidia episode. For the CEO Many companies would have to participate in the operation for her to succeed.
Pat Gelsinger, head of Intel, came out in favor of this solution in February. Park Jung-ho, co-director of the Korean manufacturer SK Hynix has already explained, during a shareholder meeting, that he is working on ” the possibility of forming a consortium, with strategic partners, to acquire it jointly “.
Cristiano Amon would not have had the opportunity to discuss the subject with SoftBank for the moment. The Japanese group is putting all its energy into putting an end to an improbable revolt by the former CEO of ARM’s Chinese subsidiary, Allen Wu. It must also manage British concerns.
Several voices are raised in the United Kingdom to keep this national jewel as close as possible to the London Stock Exchange, rather than in New York, the solution favored by SoftBank.
The latter would also like to remain the majority shareholder of ARM, once the IPO is completed. An ambition incompatible with that of Qualcomm. SoftBank has promised to seal ARM’s future before the end of the fiscal year, March 31, 2023.