Robin Saxby, Jamie Urquhart, Mike Muller, Tudor Brown, Lee Smith, John Biggs, Harry Oldham, Dave Howard, Pete Harrod, Harry Meekings, Al Thomas, Andy Merritt, David Seal[2]
Arm's main CPU competitors in servers includeIBM,Intel andAMD.[7] Intel competed with ARM-based chips in mobile devices but Arm no longer has any competition in that space (although vendors of actual ARM-based chips compete within that arena). Arm's main GPU competitors include mobile GPUs from technology companiesImagination Technologies (PowerVR),Qualcomm (Adreno), and increasinglyNvidia,AMD,Samsung andIntel. While competing in GPUs, Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia all have combined their GPUs with Arm-licensed CPUs.
Arm had a primary listing on theLondon Stock Exchange (LSE) and was a constituent of theFTSE 100 Index. It also had a secondary listing ofAmerican depositary receipts on New York'sNasdaq. However, Japanesemultinational conglomerateSoftBank Group made an agreed offer for Arm on 18 July 2016, subject to approval by Arm's shareholders, valuing the company at £24.3 billion.[8][9] The transaction was completed on 5 September 2016.[10][11] A planned takeover deal by Nvidia, announced in 2020, collapsed in February 2022,[12] with SoftBank subsequently deciding to pursue aninitial public offering on the Nasdaq in 2023, valuing Arm atUS$54.5billion.[13]
The acronym ARM was first used in 1983 and originally stood for "Acorn RISC Machine".Acorn Computers' firstRISC processor was used in the originalAcorn Archimedes and was one of the first RISC processors used in small computers. However, when the company was incorporated in 1990, what 'ARM' stood for changed to "Advanced RISC Machines". According toSteve Furber the name was changed at the behest of Apple, which did not wish to have the name of a competitor in the name of the company. At the time of theIPO in 1998, the company name was changed to "ARM Holdings",[14] often just called ARM like the processors.[15]
On 1 August 2017, the styling andlogo were changed. The logo is now all lowercase ('arm') and other uses of the name are in sentence case ('Arm').[15][16]
The company was founded on 5 November 1990 asWidelogic Limited but this was rapidly changed, on 3 December 1990, toAdvanced RISC Machines Limited and structured as ajoint venture betweenAcorn Computers,Apple, andVLSI Technology. Acorn provided 12 employees, VLSI provided tools, Apple provided a US$3 million investment (equivalent to $7 million in 2024).[17][18]Larry Tesler, Apple VP was a key person and he helped recruit the first CEO at the joint venture, Robin Saxby.[19][20] The new company intended to further the development of theAcorn RISC Machine processor, which was originally used in the Acorn Archimedes and had been selected by Apple for itsNewton project. Its first profitable year was 1993. The company's Silicon Valley and Tokyo offices were opened in 1994. ARM invested in Palmchip Corporation in 1997 to provide system on chip platforms and to enter into the disk drive market.[21][22] In 1998, the company changed its name fromAdvanced RISC Machines Ltd toARM Ltd.[23] The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) andNasdaq in 1998[24] and by February 1999, Apple's shareholding had fallen to 14.8 per cent.[25]
Duolog Technologies, anelectronic design automation company that developed a suite of tools that automate the process of IP configuration and IP integration[46]
2015
Sansa Security, a provider of hardware securityintellectual property (IP) and software for advanced system-on-chip components deployed in Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices[47]
Wicentric, aBluetooth Smart stack and profile provider[48]
Sunrise Micro Devices, a provider of sub-one volt Bluetooth radio intellectual property (IP)[48]
Apical, a provider of imaging and embedded computer vision IP products[52]
Allinea Software, a leading provider of software tools for HPC[53]
2018
Treasure Data ($600 million acquisition), provides enterprise data management software for device-to-data IoT platform[54]
Stream Technologies, provided connectivity management platform and GSM connectivity[55]
2019
WigWag, an IoT gateway and cloud platform business[56]
2020
In July 2020, Arm announced plans to spin off Treasure Data, together with the other parts of its "IoT Services Group" business, into separate SoftBank-owned entities by the end of September 2020.[57]
Japanese conglomerateSoftBank Group made an agreed offer for ARM on 18 July 2016, subject to approval by ARM's shareholders, valuing the company at £23.4 billion (US$32 billion).[8][58] The transaction was completed on 5 September 2016.[10][59]
American technology companyNvidia announced plans on 13 September 2020 to acquire ARM from SoftBank, pending regulatory approval, for a value of US$40 billion in stock and cash, which would have been the largest semiconductor acquisition to that date. SoftBank Group would acquire slightly less than a 10% stake in Nvidia, and ARM would maintain its headquarters in Cambridge.[61][62][63][64] There was opposition to the deal, including national security concerns from the UK and competition concerns from fellow tech companies such asGoogle, Microsoft andQualcomm, whose chips in use or on sale heavily rely on Arm's intellectual property.[65][66][67][68][69] It was also being battled by Arm China, its subsidiary,[70] a majority stake of which was held by Chinese investors.[71][72] The acquisition was initially scheduled to conclude before the end of 2022 per the contract.[73] However, theEuropean Commission, the UKCompetition and Markets Authority and the USFederal Trade Commission raised completion concerns focusing on Arm's role within Nvidia, while the UK government also raised concerns aboutnational security. The merger attempt was eventually cancelled in February 2022[74] due to the aforementioned regulatory pressure and hurdles.[75][76]
Arm filed for an IPO on 21 August 2023 on the Nasdaq, rather than the LSE.[77][78] A few days earlier, SoftBank Group bought back the 25% stake from Vision Fund for around $16 billion, valuing Arm at over $64 billion.[79] Arm went public on 14 September 2023 raising $4.87 billion at a $54.5 billion valuation, with SoftBank continuing to own roughly 90% of the company following the offering.[80][81][82]
SoftBank Group sold more than half of Arm China in 2018 to a local consortium consisting of various parties includingChina Investment Corp. and theSilk Road Fund, effectively relinquishing majority ownership of its Chinese subsidiary to a group of investors with ties to the Chinese state. From 2020, discord between Arm and the effective owners of Arm China became visible after the British parent company unsuccessfully tried to oust the chief executive of the subsidiary, who, however, managed to retain his position.[83][84] A prevailing view emerged that the matter would negatively affect the pending approval by the Chinese regulators of the SoftBank–Nvidia deal, as well as anypublic offering of Arm.[85][86]
In September 2021, despite Arm's denial, reports stated that the chief executive of Arm China, whom the British parent had tried to dismiss, had publicly declared the "independence" of Arm China.[70][87] In February 2022, Allen Wu, the CEO of Arm China, floated the idea of a public offering of the Chinese subsidiary in 2025.[88]
On 29 April 2022, it was reported that the CEO and legal representative of Arm China had finally been replaced according to legally recognized filings. However, Allen Wu continued to dispute this.[89] Subsequently, in 2023, key staff left to form their own chip design startup Borui Jingxin, which competes with Arm China, particularly for engineers.[90][91]
Unlike most traditional microprocessor suppliers, such asIntel,Freescale (the former semiconductor division ofMotorola, nowNXP Semiconductors) andRenesas (a former joint venture betweenHitachi andMitsubishi Electric), ARM only creates and licenses its technology asintellectual property (IP),[92] rather than manufacturing and selling its own physicalCPUs, GPUs, SoCs or microcontrollers. This model is similar to those of fellow British design housesARC International andImagination Technologies, which have similarly been designing and licensing GPUs, CPUs, and SoCs, along with supplying tooling and various design and support services to their licensees.[93]
A characteristic feature of Arm processors is their lowelectric power consumption, which makes them particularly suitable for use in portable devices.[94]
Fujitsu (the supercomputer maker of June 2011 world's fastestK computer according toTOP500) announced at theInternational Supercomputing Conference in June 2016 that its futureexascale supercomputer will feature processors of its own design that implement theARMv8 architecture, rather than theSPARC processors used in earlier supercomputers. These processors will also implement extensions to the ARMv8 architecture equivalent to HPC-ACE2 that Fujitsu is developing with ARM Holdings.[102]
The Cray XC50-series supercomputer for theUniversity of Bristol is called Isambard, named afterIsambard Kingdom Brunel. The supercomputer is expected to feature around 160 nodes, each with two 32-core ThunderX2 processors running at 2.1 GHz. Peak theoretical performance of the 10,240 cores and 40,960 threads is 172 teraFLOPS.[103]
The Vanguard project bySandia National Laboratories is to deliver an exascale ARM machine. The first generation called Hammer was based onX-Gene byApplied Micro. The second generation called Sullivan was basedCavium'sThunderXs processors. The third generation calledMayer was based on pre-production ThunderX2. The fourth generation also based on ThunderX2 is calledAstra and was slated to become operational by November 2018.[104]
Arm offers several microprocessor core designs that have been "publicly licensed" for its newer "application processors" (non-microcontroller) used in such applications as smartphones and tablets.[107]
Companies often license these designs from Arm to manufacture and integrate into their ownSystem on chip (SoC) with other components such asGPUs (sometimes Arm's Mali) ormodem/radio basebands (for mobile phones). Arm offers multiple licensing programs for their cores.[111] Arm also offers Artisan POP IP, where Arm partners withfoundries to provide physical implementation, which allows fastertime to market.[112]
In February 2016, Arm announced the Built on Arm Cortex Technology licence often shortened to Built on Cortex (BoC) licence. This licence allows companies to partner with Arm and make modifications to Arm Cortex designs. These design modifications will not be shared with other companies. These semi-custom core designs also have brand freedom, for exampleKryo 280.[113]
In addition to licences for their core designs and BoC licence, Arm offers an "architectural licence" for theirinstruction set architectures, allowing the licensees to design their own cores that implement one of those instruction sets. An Arm architectural licence is more costly than a regular Arm core licence.[114]
TheFinancial Times reported in March 2023 that Arm had planned to charge the licensees royalties based on the value of the device, instead of the prior model based on the chip's value.[115]
Systems, includingiPhone smartphones, frequently include many chips, from many different providers, that include one or more licensed Arm cores, in addition to those in the main Arm-based processor.[127] Arm's core designs are also used in chips that support many common network-related technologies in smartphones:Bluetooth,WiFi andbroadband,[128] in addition to corresponding equipment such asBluetooth headsets,[129]802.11acrouters,[130] and network providers' cellularLTE.[131]
In 2011, Arm renewed a five-year, US$5 million research partnership withUniversity of Michigan, which extended their existing research partnership to 2015. This partnership would focus on ultra-low energy andsustainable computing.[132][133]
In October 2017,Arduino announced its partnership with ARM. The announcement said, in part, "ARM recognized independence as a core value of Arduino ... without any lock-in with the ARM architecture." Arduino intends to continue to work with all technology vendors and architectures.[134]
In August 2020, Arm signed a three-year agreement withDARPA, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, enabling DARPA researchers to use all of Arm's commercially available technology.[142]
In October 2001,Warren East was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of Arm Holdings. In the 2011 financial year, East received a total compensation of £1,187,500 from ARM, comprising a salary of £475,000 and a bonus of £712,500.[143][144][145]
In March 2014, former Rexam chairmanStuart Chambers succeededJohn Buchanan as chairman. Chambers, a non-executive director of Tesco and former chief executive of Nippon Sheet Glass Group, had previously worked at Mars and Royal Dutch Shell.[148]
On 8 February 2022,Rene Haas succeeded Segars as CEO with immediate effect, with Segars leaving Arm.[149]
^Sender, Henny; Inagaki, Kana; McMorrow, Ryan; Liu, Nian; Fildes, Nic (26 June 2020)."Inside the battle for Arm China".Financial Times. Retrieved7 February 2025.
^"arm.com".Symbian. Archived fromthe original on 26 January 2008. Retrieved5 February 2008.ARM is the market-leading architecture in mobile devices worldwide, with 80% of all handsets containing at least one ARM core.
^ab"Cray Adds ARM Option to XC50 Supercomputer".top500.org. TOP500 Supercomputer Sites. Retrieved14 November 2017.Cray claims its ARM compiler demonstrated better performance in two-thirds of 135 benchmarks, and much better performance – 20 percent or more – in one-third of them, compared to open source ARM compilers from LLVM and GNU. The Cray ThunderX2 blades can be mixed with other XC50 blades outfitted with Intel Xeon-SP or Xeon Phi processors and NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. Both air-cooled and liquid-cooled options are available. Cray already has one customer lined up for the ThunderX2-powered XC50: the Great Western 4 (GW4) Alliance, a research consortium of four UK universities (Bristol, Bath, Cardiff and Exeter). In January 2017, the alliance announced it had contracted Cray to build "Isambard," a 10,000-core ARM-based supercomputer, which will provide a Tier 2 HPC service. The UK's Met Office was also involved on the deal, since it was interested in seeing how its weather and climate codes would run on such a machine. The system will be paid for out of a £3 million award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It's scheduled to be fully deployed by the end of this year.
^Bhargava, Akansha; Ochawar, R.S. (2014). "Biometric Access Control Implementation Using 32 bit Arm Cortex Processor".2014 International Conference on Electronic Systems, Signal Processing and Computing Technologies. pp. 40–46.doi:10.1109/ICESC.2014.98.ISBN978-1-4799-2102-7.S2CID14580013.
US$4.01 billion (2025)
