Arm to Manufacture Own Chip, Meta as Customer

Arm Holdings, a British chip design company, plans to manufacture its own chips, marking a significant shift from its traditional business model of licensing chip designs to firms like Apple and Nvidia. The company, majority-owned by SoftBank, aims to unveil its first central processing unit (CPU) for data centers by summer 2025, with Meta Platforms as an initial customer. This move positions Arm in direct competition with some of its current clients such as Qualcomm, potentially disrupting the semiconductor industry. The chip production will be outsourced, likely to firms like TSMC. This strategic pivot is part of SoftBank's broader plan to build an AI infrastructure network, with Arm playing a crucial role. The announcement led to a notable increase in Arm's stock value, reflecting investor optimism about the new direction.