Arm, the semiconductor subsidiary of Japanese Investment holding giant SoftBank Group is all set to launch its first AI chip in 2025.
According to a report by Nikkei Asia, the UK based chipmaker is creating a division for AI chip-making with the aim of producing a prototype product by Spring 2025. Mass production of the AI chips is expected to start in the fall of that same year.
This move is a part of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son’s 10 trillion yen ($64 billion) push to lead the group into becoming a sprawling AI powerhouse.
Arm already has hands in the chip industry. They supply circuit designs called architecture to Nvidia and other chip developers. The company holds an over 90% share in architecture for processors used in smartphones.
It is expected that Arm will cover a majority of initial development costs, which Nikkei reported could reach billions of yen. The AI chip business could be spun off and placed under SoftBank after a mass production system is established.
Arm, whose technology is found in smartphones and PCs, has already begun to see “momentum and tailwinds from all things AI,” the firm’s CEO Rene Haas said in a call with analysts in February.
Arm’s chip boost
SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate that bought Arm in 2016 for $32 billion and owns a 90 per cent stake in the company, is reportedly already negotiating with TSMC and other unnamed companies in order to secure production capacity.
SoftBank took Arm public in 2023, and shares in the chipmaker have risen by almost 50 per cent, with the biggest growth occurring after the company announced earlier this year that it would be looking to further support AI applications.
Earlier it was reported that SoftBank was also in talks with UK AI chip maker Graphcore, although a final deal is not expected to be reached.
Under Son’s vision of an AI revolution, SoftBank aims to expand to data centres, robots and power generation. AI exceeding human intellectual capability “can solve problems, like asking a crystal ball to tell the future,” said Son at a symposium in July. “Japan needs to make the brightest crystal ball at the center.”
Arm’s Q4 results
On May 8, Arm posted its Q4 2024 financial results, which saw the company achieve fourth-quarter revenue of $928 million, a 47 per cent year-over-year rise. This was largely driven by the company’s licensing business which saw 60 percent growth during the quarter.
In a letter to shareholders, the company attributed the double-digit growth in this segment to “multiple high-value agreements and the increased demand for Arm’s power-efficient technology for AI from data centres to Edge computing.”
