TSMC says it will decide on Arm IPO investment over the coming days

Published 3:28 am Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.  (TSM) – Get Free Report, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, said Wednesday that it will decide whether to invest in the upcoming Arm IPO before the end of the week.

Chairman Mark Liu told reporters on the sidelines of the SEMICON Taiwan summit, an industry event, that his company was still weighing whether to join a host of major chipmakers tabbed as strategic investors in the $5 billion listing, which is expected to debut on the Nasdaq on September 14.

Apple  (AAPL) – Get Free Report, Advanced Micro Devices  (AMD) – Get Free Report, Nvidia  (NVDA) – Get Free Report, Intel  (INTC) – Get Free Report and Samsung have all reportedly agreed to participate in the listing.

“Arm is an important element of our ecosystem, our technology and our customers’ ecosystem,” Liu said. “We want it to be successful, we want it to be healthy. That’s the bottom line.”

Arm’s own, Japan-based SoftBank, said in Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday that it will set the IPO price for Arm, at least during initial talks with major investors, at between $47 and $51 per share, a level that would translate to an overall market value of between $50 billion and $54 billion.

The IPO will likely sell 95.5 million shares and raise around $4.87 billion, if the current price range holds, with Japan-based SoftBank holding around 90.6% of Arm’s ordinary shares upon completion.

SoftBank, which failed to complete a $40 billion sale of the U.K-based chipmaker to Nvidia NVDA last year amid pushback from competition authorities in the U.S. and Europe, spurned the British government in March by opting to pursue a U.S.-only listing.

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