ARM is expected to go public on the U.S. Nasdaq stock exchange later this year, with an initial public offering that is said to value the British chip design firm at more than $60 billion. Out of the notable investors, Samsung, Intel, and NVIDIA’s name have been brought up, and just recently, a report states that Apple will be among those giants investing in the company. For the California-based firm, investing in ARM has a significantly broader interest and will determine the outcome of its custom silicon division.

Apple’s overall ownership in ARM was not discussed in the latest report, but it should secure a stable future for the development of improved chipsets

Currently, 75 percent of ARM’s shares belong to SoftBank, with the remaining 25 percent belonging to SoftBank Vision Fund, according to Nikkei Asia. The Vision Fund is said to sell 10-15 percent of its shares in the open market, likely to make room for companies like Apple to pursue their investments. Apple’s exact ownership in percentage was not discussed in the report, but its significance in the investment pool is massive.

As most of you know, without ARM, Apple would have little choice but to continue relying on Intel instead of its M-series of custom chipsets, which deliver incredible performance-per-watt metrics. ARM welcomes large chipmakers as medium to long-term shareholders, as shelling them a few percentage points of the company ensures that the stock price stabilizes at the time of the public listing.

For Apple, the continued existence of ARM presents an opportunity to continue developing chipsets like the M3 Ultra and, eventually, future parts like the M4 that will be mass-produced on improved chip architectures from TSMC. Previously, NVIDIA attempted to acquire all of ARM for $40 billion, but the deal went south when regulators started voicing their concerns.

Since then, SoftBank has tried to take the company public, with its current valuation standing at $60 billion. It is also not surprising to hear that Samsung and NVIDIA have also invested in the chip designer, but even their total ownership was not discussed in the report.

News Source: Nikkei