Looking to showcase the capabilities of its designs, Arm has formed a team to develop advanced silicon in-house, the Financial Times reports. Although the company has worked before with manufacturing partners to build test chips, sources told the newspaper that the new chips will be “more advanced” than ever. The aim is to attract new customers, probably from markets in which Arm designs haven’t made many inroads yet. There are no plans to sell or license the prototype designs.
As the FT notes, Arm recently acknowledged in its annual report that it derives most revenue from a relatively small number of companies. The loss of even one such customer would therefore have a major impact. Diversification would mitigate that risk. Additionally, Arm’s owner Softbank is looking for ways to drive up sales ahead of an IPO later this year.
One might speculate that Intel is among Arm’s manufacturing partners. The companies recently announced a collaboration to optimize Intel’s 18A manufacturing process for Arm designs.