Arm Ltd, a chip designer that is preparing for what would be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) this year, saw its revenue decline about 1 percent in the most recent fiscal year, according to a draft filing for its IPO reviewed by Bloomberg.
Companies often look to post rising revenue in the periods leading up to stock sales, but Arm’s sales fell to US$2.68 billion in the 12 months ended on March 31, according to the filing, which is still subject to change. Japan’s Softbank Group Corp, which owns Arm, plans an IPO of the company as soon as next month that could value the chip designer at as much as US$70 billion.
Arm’s draft F-1 filing is based on US accounting rules as the company prepares to list on NASDAQ. In May, Softbank said sales at the unit had grown 5.7 percent in the latest fiscal year under international standards.
Photo: Reuters
US accounting rules and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have separate thresholds for when revenue can be recognized.
The overall chip industry is still emerging from a sales slump triggered by a buildup of excess inventory, especially in the smartphone market — a central focus for Arm. Qualcomm Inc, one of Arm’s biggest partners, gave a disappointing forecast for the latest quarter earlier this month, sending its shares tumbling. And even Apple Inc’s prized iPhone has seen demand slow.
Arm’s draft filing shows sales for the quarter ended June 30 fell 2.5 percent to US$675 million under US standards. That is a smaller drop than Softbank reported earlier this month, when it said sales for the unit fell about 11 percent to US$641 million under IFRS.
Arm designs technology including microprocessors, and its intellectual property is used in just about every smartphone in the world. It was publicly traded until 2016, when Softbank bought it for around US$32 billion. The Japanese conglomerate said in 2020 that it was selling the company to Nvidia Corp for US$40 billion, but regulatory pressure forced Nvidia to abandon its bid last year. Arm said in April it had made a confidential filing for a US IPO.
The filing could be made public as early today, people familiar with the matter said. Arm is expected to sell about 10 percent of the company’s shares in the listing.
A representative for Arm declined to comment.
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
FORECAST: The greater computing power needed for emerging AI applications has driven higher demand for advanced semiconductors worldwide, TSMC said The government-supported Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has raised its forecast for this year’s growth in the output value of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to above 22 percent on strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. In its latest IEK Current Quarterly Model report, the institute said the local semiconductor industry would have output of NT$6.5 trillion (US$216.6 billion) this year, up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, an upward revision from a 19.1 percent increase estimate made in May. The strong showing of the local semiconductor industry largely reflected the stronger-than-expected performance of the integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing segment,
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
RSS