Semiconductor giants’ interest to acquire British chip design firm Arm deepens as owner SoftBank steps up IPO plans

South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix is considering to co-invest in a consortium that would acquire British semiconductor design company Arm

In February, Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger expressed a similar interest to participate in such a consortium

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British firm Arm’s various designs and software have enabled advanced computing in more than 215 billion chips, powering products from sensors, smartphones and laptops to cars and supercomputers. Photo: Shutterstock.

Published: 7:00am, 31 Mar 2022Updated: 7:38am, 31 Mar 2022

South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix has expressed interest to take part in the acquisition of British semiconductor design company Arm, months after the SoftBank Group Corp-owned firm started preparing for an initial public offering when Nvidia Corp’s US$40 billion deal to buy it fell through.

SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker after Samsung Electronics, is considering to co-invest in a consortium that would acquire Arm, according to a report on Wednesday by daily newspaper The Korea Herald, which quoted SK Hynix co-chief executive Park Jung-ho.

“Arm plays a very important role in the international semiconductor ecosystem, and the ecosystem will not allow a single entity to take full advantage of the benefit from the acquisition,” said Park during a briefing after an SK Hynix shareholder meeting at its headquarters in Icheon, in Gyeonggi province.

In a statement to the South China Morning Post on Wednesday, SK Hynix clarified that the consideration to take part in such an acquisition was “a theoretical review”.

“This doesn’t imply any specific evaluation or detailed plan [of the company joining any consortium to invest in Arm],” the Korean chip maker said.

South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix last year partnered with the municipal government of Wuxi, a city in eastern Jiangsu province, to develop the China-Korea Integrated Circuit Industrial Park. Photo: Shutterstock

Still, the report citing the SK Hynix chief may fuel more speculation on the future of Arm, which announced plans to cut as much as 15 per cent of its more than 6,500 workforce in the UK and the US ahead of its proposed IPO in New York.

Semiconductor giants’ interest to acquire British chip design firm Arm deepens as owner SoftBank steps up IPO plans

South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix is considering to co-invest in a consortium that would acquire British semiconductor design company Arm In February, Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger expressed a similar interest to participate in such a consortium

South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix is considering to co-invest in a consortium that would acquire British semiconductor design company Arm

In February, Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger expressed a similar interest to participate in such a consortium