Qualcomm wants to invest in Arm – under one condition

Qualcomm wants to invest in Arm – under one condition

Qualcomm did not comment on these offers. Nvidia says that an IPO can’t sustain Arm’s growth, but they can.

The U.S chip giant, Qualcomm, announced recently that it would be willing to invest in the U.K.-based chip company, Arm, only “if they list the company on the stock market instead of selling it to Nvidia in a $40 billion sale,” the Sunday newspaper reports.

Arm, a UK-based chip company separated from Acorn Computers in 1990, is poised to sell its stock to Nvidia in a $40 billion deal.  However, Qualcomm, the U.S. chip company, refuses to invest in it unless regulators block the deal with Nvidia.

Why Qualcomm wants to stop the $40 billion deal?

Qualcomm’s CEO Amon states that Arm will benefit massively from being on the stock market as an independent company. Many companies show interest in the UK-based chip company. Placing it on the stock market is a brilliant way for the company to become a publicly traded company, with a consortium of companies willing to invest in the stock. Amon also disclosed that Qualcomm is “having discussions with other companies that feel the same way about Arm being on the stock market.”

Arm makes energy-efficient chips that are used in 95% of the computers and smartphones used globally.  The company also licenses these to more than 500 of its companies that use the designs to manufacture their chips.

An Arm spokesperson told CNBC that its decision to sell its stock to Nvidia stems from the confidence that the combination of both companies would be beneficial for the technological ecosystem, especially for the market of Artificial Intelligence.

And Nvidia spokesperson, at the same time, tells CNBC that for Arm to reach its true potential, it needed more than an IPO, which Nvidia would be glad to provide.

According to Financial Times, Nvidia has asked Chinese regulators to ‘close’ the deal by early 2022.