
SoftBank Explores Sale or IPO for Chip Designer Arm Holdings - fnordsensei
https://www.wsj.com/articles/softbank-explores-options-for-chip-designer-arm-holdings-11594672437
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singhrac
Does anyone know the prices that Arm charges for its licenses are set? They
occupy such a strangely powerful position in the global chip landscape.

Similarly, how does TSMC set their prices? There don't seem to be any real
alternatives for Apple or AMD to switch it, it seems like they could really
squeeze them if they wanted to.

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ksec
>Does anyone know the prices that Arm charges for its licenses are set?

Depending on licensing type and Cores. Charge as Percentage of selling price
or Per Core. But generally the price of ARM license is sort of like a rounding
error in grand scheme of things. ARM's total _revenue_ is less than Intel's
_Profit_.

>They occupy such a strangely powerful position in the global chip landscape.

There are ARM architecture license, which effectively allows a company to use
specific ARM arch indefinitely for a large upfront cost. ( Apple, Qualcomm
etc. )

Anandtech has a few articles on the subject if you are interested.

>how does TSMC set their prices?

Depending on your node, and are priced at Per wafer or per fully functional
chip. Again the Wafer Price isn't that expensive. For example it cost Apple
less than $25 to produce their A13.

>There don't seem to be any real alternatives for Apple or AMD to switch it,

This actually has little to do with pricing of the Wafer. The Design of your
chip isn't transferable to another Foundry without a lot of work. And the
design part is _EXTREMELY_ expensive.

>it seems like they could really squeeze them if they wanted to.

Or risk your customers going to Samsung and not coming back for a long time
due to lead time in semiconductor's design. Along with empty Fab capacity
which they will have to lower price to fill. A lose - lose situation.

SemiWiki and SemiEngineering has a few articles on the subject if you are
interested.

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vicosity
Not sure Apple could legally buy Arm Holdings.. Or if they do it would most
certainly be denied by the fed.

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EricE
Huh?

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vicosity
Huh? what?

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nine_k
Now an IPO I would gladly buy.

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bradhe
I wonder why? This seems like a really odd time to do this.

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kilerz
They need cash. Arm is one of the best asset that they have.

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sp527
Exactly this. They’re basically signaling financial distress somewhere else on
their balance sheet (one could make an educated guess about where). Arm is a
significant growth business and the decision to part with it wouldn’t be taken
lightly.

