Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon wants his company to be part of a consortium of rivals that would invest in Arm and ensure its independence.
Arm Holdings is one of the leading semiconductor design firms, with companies around the globe licensing its designs to serve as the basis for their chips. Apple’s A-series and M1 line of chips are prime examples. The company was recently in talks to be acquired by Nvidia, but that deal fell through over concerns that owning Arm would give Nvidia an unfair advantage. Amon wants to make sure that scenario is never again a possibility.
SoftBank, Arm’s current owner, is now looking to spin-off Arm as an independent company following the failure of the Nvidia deal. Amon told Financial Times, via Ars Technica, he wants many companies to invest in Arm to ensure no one company could gain an unfair advantage.
“We’re an interested party in investing,” Amon said in an interview. “It’s a very important asset and it’s an asset which is going to be essential to the development of our industry.”
“You’d need to have many companies participating so they have a net effect that Arm is independent,” he added.
Amon sees this strategy as a way for Arm to return to its roots and do business the way it did before SoftBank acquired it.
“Arm has won everywhere because of the collective investment of the entire ecosystem, from companies like Apple and Qualcomm and many others, and that’s because it was an independent, open architecture that everybody could invest in,” said Amon, referring to the pre-SoftBank period.
Given Arm’s importance to the industry, it’s a safe bet his sentiments will be echoed by many of Arm’s customers. In fact, Intel has expressed similar interest in a consortium to purchase Arm.
