Arm Holdings announced today that they have just made a “strategic investment”, which means that they have bought a small portion of shares in Raspberry Pi Ltd, the company responsible for the famous Raspberry Pi and its derivative products. The Raspberry Pi have always been equipped with ARM processors, but of course this sudden interest (and firm, since it involves investing money) may have more background than it seems…
«Arm and Raspberry Pi share the vision of making computing accessible to everyone, removing barriers to innovation so that anyone can learn, experiment and create IoT solutions», said Paul Williamson, head of Arm’s IoT division.
Arm takes a shot at Raspberry Pi
Since its initial launch back in 2012, Raspberry Pi has become a well-known brand for any electronics enthusiast, and not just for IoT or programming fans, since one of these simple devices can do the job. even a desktop computer if you want (with Linux, of course). Since then, various variants of the equipment have been released on the market, and from the numbered Raspberry Pi to 5, which was the last to be released on the market, we also have more specific models such as the Raspberry Pi 400 or the “Pico” model.
It is a fact that in its eleven years of existence, Raspberry Pi as a company has earned a name in the industry, and proof of this is that every time they launch a new model on the market it usually sells out in minutes. Furthermore, their level of investment is also noticeable from the moment the first models cost just a few tens of euros, and the latest ones have already gone into the tens, not to mention the money they earn with their accessories.
For these reasons, it is not surprising that a company as important as Arm has set its sights and shown its interest in Raspberry Pi. At the end of the day, it is true that they have always had a close relationship, but it is one thing to have a good relationship and quite another to invest in it, which is precisely what they have done now. This, at the same time, is a confirmation that both companies will continue working together in the future, or in other words, that future Raspberry Pi models will continue to use Arm processors and we will not see RISC-V based models like it was rumored lately, at least not in the near future.
Now, what will happen from now on? Well, in principle nothing at all, this investment by Arm in Raspberry Pi does not have to mean any change, because let’s remember that they have only bought a small part of the company’s shares and are far from being the majority shareholders to be able to influence the company’s business decisions. But what is true is that this investment can be a “trailer” to see how things are going and make a stronger investment in the future… who knows.
