After the failed purchase attempt by NVIDIA, the future of ARM, which remains in the hands of SoftBank, has been one of the great unknowns in the sector. We have seen many proposals from the big players in the sector, in fact recently Qualcomm said that the ideal would be a consortium of technology companies to ensure their independence, But what does the current owner of ARM really plan to do?
Nothing is definitive yet, but Masayoshi Son, CEO and founder of SoftBank Group Corp., has commented that most of ARM’s customers are in Silicon Valley, saying that US financial markets would love to have ARM, which means they could take the company public in the United States. However, this is one more possibility, since the executive also indicated that he has requests to take ARM public in London.
Before SoftBank Group Corp’s purchase of ARM, the British company was listed in both the UK and the US, so a new venture on the stock market in either country would not be a major challenge for ARM. the company is an important source of capital for the Japanese firm, But Son has been feeling the pressure from shareholders for some time, because the SoftBank Vision Fund posted losses last May.
SoftBank shares have accumulated a one-third drop in value since the last annual general meeting, but Son has appealed to shareholders asking them to launch a longer-term view of the company’s futuremaking a curious analogy of the time it takes certain fruits to ripen, and saying that “in 10 years they should have something delicious”.
Son has been confident and positive, and looks forward to running SoftBank for many years to come. Going back to the future of ARM I think we can make it clear that this will not end up in the hands of a single company, that is, we will not see any new purchase attempts by the main technological giants. It is understandable, especially considering the obstacles put to NVIDIA by the main regulatory entities, and some of the most important technological giants, and more interested in not changing the current licensing model of the ARM architecture.
