ARM HOLDINGS PLC /UK (ARM)

Arm Holdings plc is a global leader in the semiconductor industry, principally engaged in licensing, marketing, and researching and developing central processing unit (CPU) intellectual property (IP), graphics processing unit IP, systems IP, compute subsystems (CSS), and associated software, tools, and related services; as of March 2026 it also began expanding into production silicon products with the introduction of the Arm AGI CPU. Headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., with a major U.S. subsidiary (Arm, Inc.) in San Jose, California, the company traces its roots to 1990 as a joint venture of Acorn Computers, Apple Computer, and VLSI Technology, later going public, being taken private by SoftBank Group in 2016, and completing its own IPO on Nasdaq (ticker: ARM) in September 2023. Arm's core offering is the Arm compute platform, encompassing CPU products for a wide range of performance, power, and cost requirements; complementary GPU and NPU accelerators; system IP such as interconnects; pre-integrated compute subsystem (CSS) platforms; and development tools and software (including Kleidi libraries for AI optimization), all built around a common scalable architecture that underpins software compatibility across the ecosystem.

As of March 31, 2026, more than 350 billion Arm-based chips had shipped cumulatively, supported by a global developer community of over 22 million, and the company holds greater than 99% market share in mobile applications processors, contributing roughly 43% of its royalty revenue. Arm's business is organized around three AI domains: Edge AI (serving smartphones, industrial IoT/embedded devices, and consumer electronics such as digital TVs, tablets, laptops, and wearables), Cloud AI (covering cloud compute infrastructure for cloud service providers, networking equipment including base stations and routers, and other infrastructure such as HPC and enterprise servers), and Physical AI (encompassing automotive applications like infotainment, ADAS, engine management and body/chassis control, as well as robotics platforms including drones and humanoid and industrial robots). Its customers include semiconductor companies, OEMs, cloud service providers (CSPs), and other organizations that license its IP under various models—including CSS, Arm Total Access, Arm Flexible Access, Technology Licence Agreements (TLAs), and Architecture Licenses—typically paying licensing fees plus a per-unit royalty on shipped chips, creating a long tail of recurring royalty revenue; the company has also begun offering Arm-designed silicon products directly, with AGI CPU production expected by the end of calendar year 2026.

Arm competes primarily against established architectures such as x86 and emerging open-source alternatives like RISC-V, as well as against customers developing proprietary architectures, competing on factors including price, performance, energy efficiency, customization ease, software availability, and ecosystem support, while relying on an extensive network of semiconductor, foundry, EDA, and software ecosystem partners to sustain its competitive position across smartphones, IoT, consumer electronics, automotive, networking, cloud computing, and robotics markets worldwide.