There are billions of dollars invested in data centers—perhaps too many. This highly lucrative business has attracted the attention of many companies, including ARM. Until now, the company only designed chips that others manufactured under license, but now it wants to take things further. The reason? Artificial intelligence.
ARM Takes the Leap with Its First In-House Chip. According to the Financial Times, ARM plans to launch its first self-designed chip this summer. The sector has long been dominated by giants like Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Apple, but now ARM wants to join the competition.
SoftBank, which holds a majority stake in ARM, has ambitious plans for the sector. It has partnered with OpenAI and other companies for the massive Stargate project, which aims to invest $500 billion in data centers across the U.S. ARM hopes its chips will play a crucial role in powering these servers.
Meta Secured as First Major Client. ARM’s new chip will be a server CPU, designed for customization by companies like Meta, which has already become its first big customer. According to sources close to the deal, TSMC may handle the manufacturing.
Meanwhile, SoftBank is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Ampere, a company specializing in multi-core ARM-based chips for data centers. Intel and AMD have traditionally dominated this market with their x86 architecture, but ARM-based chips are gaining traction. If ARM successfully enters the space with its own design, it could take an even larger market share from these giants.
Qualcomm has also been trying to establish itself in this sector with server chips, but its recent legal battle with ARM—only recently settled—may complicate its position. Additionally, Qualcomm had been in talks with Meta to supply chips, meaning ARM’s move could disrupt its plans.
ARM is no longer just a chip designer—it’s gearing up to become a major player in the industry. The battle for data centers just got a lot more interesting.
