Reuters reports, citing sources, that Amazon is in discussions with Japan's SoftBank Group on the initial public offering of British chip company Arm and may end up being its anchor investor.
The Japanese holding company has increased efforts in the past month to draw investors to Arm ahead of the IPO, according to two FT interlocutors familiar with the talks. Sources say that SoftBank initially engaged in discussions with Nvidia, Intel, and other chip manufacturers, but later widened its pool of potential investors to include Google, Apple, and businesses in other sectors that significantly rely on semiconductors.
According to them, the list of investors in Arm might include businesses involved in the automotive and factory automation industries. There are 10 or so potential non-public investors. An unidentified SoftBank advisor added that Arm is "casting its net wide," although only one or two anchor investors may remain from a broad list of potential partners. Amazon, Arm, and SoftBank all declined to comment.
Reuters notes that Amazon's probable involvement in the IPO highlights the significance of Arm to cloud computing.
source: reuters.com
The Japanese holding company has increased efforts in the past month to draw investors to Arm ahead of the IPO, according to two FT interlocutors familiar with the talks. Sources say that SoftBank initially engaged in discussions with Nvidia, Intel, and other chip manufacturers, but later widened its pool of potential investors to include Google, Apple, and businesses in other sectors that significantly rely on semiconductors.
According to them, the list of investors in Arm might include businesses involved in the automotive and factory automation industries. There are 10 or so potential non-public investors. An unidentified SoftBank advisor added that Arm is "casting its net wide," although only one or two anchor investors may remain from a broad list of potential partners. Amazon, Arm, and SoftBank all declined to comment.
Reuters notes that Amazon's probable involvement in the IPO highlights the significance of Arm to cloud computing.
source: reuters.com