Apple and Samsung to Put Money into Chip Manufacturing Company
TOKYO: Apple and Samsung Electronics will invest in SoftBank Group-owned chipmaker Arm in its initial public offering (IPO), which is expected in September, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Reuters reported in June that Arm was in talks with about a dozen companies — including Apple, Samsung and Intel — with the goal of getting one or more anchor investors to bid.
Last month, Reuters and other media reported that Arm was in talks to have US chipmaker Nvidia as an anchor investor in a New York listing.
Apple, Samsung, Nvidia and Intel plan to invest in Arm as soon as it goes public, Nikkei said. The SoftBank-owned company will formally apply to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for listing later this month, the newspaper said.
Arm plans to sell stakes in the chipmakers for “a few percent each,” the newspaper said.
SoftBank declined to comment. Apple and Intel did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment, while Samsung and Nvidia declined to comment.
The long-awaited listing is seen as a potential surprise for Softbank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son’s sprawling technology conglomerate.
SoftBank has sought to list Armi since its deal to sell chip design to Nvidia collapsed last year amid objections from competition authorities.
The planned U.S. IPO could raise $8 billion to $10 billion, sources told Reuters in April. At Tuesday’s earnings briefing, SoftBank’s chief financial officer did not provide details on an IPO date or fundraising target, but said preparations were going “very smoothly.”
SoftBank posted a surprise loss on Tuesday but said it was dipping back into new investments after its Vision Fund unit returned to a loss for the first time in six quarters.
