Arm-Chef Rene Haas vor der New Yorker Börse
Foto: JUSTIN LANE / EPA
The chip designer Arm, whose technology is present in practically all smartphones, has started with a surge in its stock price on the New York Stock Exchange. At the halfway point of trading on Thursday, the stock was being traded at around $61, which is about 20% higher than the initial offering price. This IPO is the largest in the US this year and was also seen as a test for other companies.
Arm set the offering price at $51. This was at the upper end of the price range of $47 to $51.
Softbank will retain approximately 90 percent ownership of Arm after the IPO and will receive proceeds of around five billion dollars from the sale of shares. Companies like Apple, which develops processors for its devices based on Arm’s chip architectures, and semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm, whose chips are used in many Android phones, pay royalties to Arm for the use of its chip architecture.
Arm designs have become dominant in smartphones and tablet computers, surpassing Intel’s chip systems, partly due to their lower power consumption. Chips based on Arm architectures are now also being used in data centers, and Apple utilizes them in its Mac computers.
Softbank hatte die britische Firma Arm 2016 für 32 Milliarden Dollar gekauft und von der Börse genommen. Ein Verkauf an den Chipkonzern Nvidia scheiterte im vergangenen Jahr an Bedenken von Wettbewerbshütern. Danach wurde der Börsengang beschlossen, dessen Erlös Softbank zugutekommen soll.