Arm Holdings, a UK-based chip designer for smartphones and other markets, raised $4.9 billion by offering 95.5 million ADSs (100% secondary) at $51, the high end of the range of $47 to $51. Certain cornerstone investors, including Intel and NVIDIA, indicated an intention to purchase $735 million worth of ADSs in the offering (15% of the deal).
Arm is now the largest IPO of 2023, and the largest deal since Rivian (RIVN) in late 2021. It is also the first major tech IPO of the year, and the largest US tech IPO since Uber in 2019.
Arm is the industry leader in licensing the CPU architecture used in mobile devices, powering over 99% of the world's smartphones in 2022. It estimates that approximately 70% of the world's population uses Arm-based products. Going forward, it plans to raise prices, expand into secondary markets, and hopes to catch the wave of AI-driven demand for chip products.
Arm Holdings plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ARM. Barclays, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Mizuho Securities, BofA Securities, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Jefferies, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, MUFG, Natixis, Santander, and SMBC Nikko acted as joint bookrunners on the deal.
