SoftBank already owns 75% of the chip company
SoftBank Group is reportedly in talks to purchase the remaining 25% of Arm it doesn’t already control directly from Vision Fund 1, a $100 billion investment fund that the chip company established in 2017. Reuters, which first reported the news, claimed that if the deal goes through, Vision Fund’s biggest investors would see a “major, immediate windfall.”
SoftBank, which intends to list ARM on Nasdaq next month at a valuation of $60 billion to $70 billion, currently owns 75% of the chip company. According to Reuters, though, if the company acquires the Vision Fund 1’s stake, it would list fewer Arm shares and likely retain a stake of between 85% and 90%.
In the event that Softbank doesn’t secure Vision Fund 1’s stake, those shares will be sold on the market over time, a process that could take at least one to years, which introduces the risk of Arm’s share price dropping.
In 2020, Nvidia announced plans to acquire Arm from Softbank for $40 billion; however, two years later, the deal was called off following ongoing regulatory challenges. As a result, SoftBank pivoted to readying Arm ready for an initial public stock offering sometime in 2023.
It has been widely reported that several big names like Apple, Samsung, Nvidia and Intel have expressed interested in investing in the Arm IPO.
