In The Biggest Deal In Semi-Conductor Industry, SoftBank Set To Sell Arm Holdings To Nvidia For Over $40 Billion: Reports

In what is likely to be largest ever deal in Semi-conductor conductor industry, Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp is set to sell British chip designer Arm Holdings to Nvidia Corp for more than $40 billion, Financial Times reported.

The cash-and-stock deal could be announced as early tomorrow and would value Arm in the low $40 billions, the FT report said quoting sources aware of the development.

In its largest-ever purchase, Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank had acquired Arm for $32 billion in 2016.

Arm supplies the chip technology for virtually all mobile devices such as phones and tablets but is also expanding into processors for cars, data-center services and personal computers including Apple’s iMac.

While the British company does not fabricate it’s own chips, it enters into technology licensing agreement with others who can make chips using it.

Nvidia, which recently overtook Intel to become the most valuable chipmaker in the world with a market valuation at $300 billion, is known for its graphics chips that power video games. But it has recently developed offerings other markets including artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, cryptocurrency mining and data centres.

The FT report also said that SoftBank has managed to resolve the dispute between Arm and head of its China joint venture, Allen Wu, which threatened to derail any potential sale.