The I.P.O. filing means Arm can begin to gauge investor interest, which will be critical to the share sale.
The News
Arm, the chip design company owned by SoftBank, filed for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange on Monday, in what is expected to be one of the largest I.P.O.s in recent years.
The filing comes 18 months after Nvidia, the Silicon Valley chip maker, abandoned its offer to buy Arm for $40 billion. The Federal Trade Commission had sued to stop the deal.
Arm did not list a prospective share price in its filing on Monday.
The company reported $2.68 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ended in March, just below its $2.70 billion the year before. Last quarter, Arm had net income of 10 cents per share, down from 22 cents the previous year.Why It Matters
The move will provide Arm’s parent company, SoftBank, with more capital to further invest in start-ups. In a recent meeting with investors and analysts, SoftBank’s chief executive, Masayoshi Son, said the company was ready to shift to “offense” in the field of artificial intelligence.
