Qualcomm interested in buying Arm stake in upcoming IPO

CEO Cristiano Amon has said the chipmaker intends to purchase a share in Arm during its planned IPO this year.

Amon told the Financial Times that his company is interested in investing alongside its competitors, and indicated that Qualcomm could collaborate with other businesses in the event that a large enough consortium was formed to make the acquisition.

Amon said Arm's IPO might still have an effect on the British chip designer's neutral stance (it provides chip designs to many companies, including Nvidia and Qualcomm) and that it would be safer to form a consortium with a large ownership.

"We're an interested party in investing," he said. "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.

Qualcomm has yet to speak with Arm's Japanese owner SoftBank regarding a possible investment.

SoftBank decided to take Arm public after Nvidia's proposed $40 billion (£31 billion) merger fell through earlier this year, due to 'severe regulatory hurdles.'

Nearly every smartphone in the world uses Arm chip designs, and it counts Qualcomm, Apple and Samsung among its clients. Accordingly, SoftBank is seeking a valuation of at least $60 billion (£47 billion), says Bloomberg. However, market watchers have previously been sceptical of an IPO raising anything close to the amount Nvidia offered.

Qualcomm, one of Arm's major clients, was one of the most vocal opponents of the Nvidia purchase, alleging that it would jeopardise Arm's neutral position in the market.

Following Nvidia's unsuccessful acquisition bid, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger indicated in February that his company would be open to becoming part of a consortium to purchase Arm from SBG.

"We're not big users of Arm, but we do use Arm. So if a consortium would emerge, we would probably be very favorable to participate in it in some manner," Gelsinger said.

A consortium may not only be made up of private firms. Some UK lawmakers have proposed that the Government purchase a 'golden share' in the company, recognising its importance as a strategic asset.

"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.

"When we look today, I think the trend is that everything is moving to Arm," he added, referring to the company's recent growth beyond mobile phones into automobiles, the IoT and datacentres.

Arm's future still remains to be seen.