Softbank Group Corp has lined up some of Arm Ltd’s biggest customers as strategic investors for the chip company’s initial public offering (IPO), including Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp, Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, according to people familiar with the situation.
The investors also include Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Cadence Design Systems Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Synopsys Inc, among others, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details have not been announced.
The investors would put in amounts ranging from US$25 million to US$100 million, according to insiders.
Photo: Reuters
Financial support from some of the tech industry’s biggest names would help bolster the offering, which is expected to raise US$5 billion to US$7 billion. Softbank, which acquired Arm in 2016, would seek US$47 to US$51 per share in the IPO, the people said.
Softbank has been capitalizing on investor interest in the chip industry, which has benefited from spending on artificial intelligence equipment. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index has rallied this year, far outpacing the S&P 500 Index and other major indices.
Arm is considering pricing its shares on Sept. 13, and the stock would start trading the next day. The roadshow to promote the offering is expected to come after today’s US Labor Day holiday.
A successful debut by Arm would be a boon for Softbank chief executive officer Masayoshi Son, whose Vision Fund lost a record US$30 billion last year.
It could also spur dozens of companies to pursue their own IPO plans. Online grocery-delivery firm Instacart Inc, marketing and data automation provider Klaviyo and footwear maker Birkenstock are all working on their own offerings.
At this point, Son would not want to part with 10 percent of the company, Bloomberg said.
Arm, based in Cambridge, England, has assembled a lengthy roster of underwriters for the IPO, reflecting both the company’s global reach and banks’ eagerness to land roles on big-ticket deals in a slow listings market.
The company provides chip designs and licenses technology for more than 1 billion smartphones sold every year.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS