Semiconductor Design Firm arm surprised the hardware industry on February 13 with the announcement that it will make a server CPU as well as licensing its semiconductor design to other organizations; Meta locked in as the first partner. The move transforms arm from a resource for companies like Qualcomm and Nvidia into a potential competitor.
According to the Financial Times, Arm -CEO Rene Haas was able to show the new chip in the summer.
Arm plan to make a chip for servers in large data centers
Specifically, arm will develop and sell its own CPU, which is intended to stay on servers for large data centers. The processor has a base architecture that can be adapted to different customers. More details about the chip’s capabilities were not available at the time of writing.
Arm will not produce the manufacture; Like many major semiconductor manufacturers, the chip will be made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Arm has also recruited staff from its customers, according to Reuters.
See: Data centers can reduce energy consumption by changing only 30 code lines in Linux Kernel Network Stack, a team from the University of Waterloo found.
Arm makes most chips in leading smartphones, seeking to expand AI production
Arm that Softbank owns has a critical space in the semiconductor industry as a design company that licenses its drawings to the tech giants that handle the implementation and manufacture.
Most of the world’s smartphones include chips designed inside the arm. E.g. Uses the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Google Pixel 8 both AI-compatible CPUs based on ArmDesign. Apple’s M-Series chips found on iPhones are based on ArmDesign.
Softbank -founder Masayoshi Son plans to utilize arm to build an AI production pipeline, says the Financial Times. Softbank also finances the Stargate project, a US-based initiative to build AI-Infrastructure along Openai, Microsoft and Nvidia.
Arm is based in Cambridge, England.
ARMS CHIP Compete with Hardware -Power Centers
Arm’s partnership with Meta could interfere with some stores for other larger companies in server chips, such as Intel and AMD. Arm is already drawn in front of Intel in the AI age because its CPUs are relatively energy efficient. Energy efficiency can produce or break data center plans in the days of resource development of AI workloads.
Selling your own chip puts arm in direct competition with one of its customers: Qualcomm. Arm and Qualcomm have become involved in a legal battle, resulting in a victory for Qualcomm in December 2024. Arm alleged Qualcomm’s use of Nuvia processors that Qualcomm began using after acquiring Nuvia violated the conditions of Nuvia’s licenses regarding Arm chips. However, jurors became indefinite that Nuvia actually broke its license contract with arm; Therefore, the case may go to another trial.
Arm’s steps to make a CPU product overlap with Nvidia’s customer base, although Nvidia is best known for GPUs. Nvidia tried to buy arm in 2020, but was averted by anti -rut regulators. Nvidia still has a financial share in arm and uses arm for some of its designs.