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.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of