Arm has filed for an initial public offering at the Nasdaq on Monday. As the chip designer didn’t reveal details about pricing or the number of shares it intends to list, it remains unclear what valuation owner Softbank is seeking. If the recent purchase of the Vision Fund’s stake is anything to go by, the valuation would come in at about 65 billion dollars (Vision Fund is part of the Softbank Group). This is consistent with various reports suggesting 60-70 billion dollars. Softbank will retain a majority stake following the IPO.
Softbank took Arm private in 2016 (link in Dutch), paying 29 billion euros – a forty percent premium over the market price at the time. In 2022, an attempt to sell the pivotal IC company to Nvidia for 40 billion dollars fell through due to “significant regulatory challenges.” The assumption that Softbank would pursue an IPO instead was confirmed a few months ago.