SoftBank’s chip tech firm Arm posts record 2021 revenue

Arm, which makes the basic blueprint used to design chips, had revenue of $2.7 billion last year, up 35% from the previous year.

SoftBank Group Corp's chip technology firm Arm Ltd on Thursday reported record revenue for 2021, and Chief Executive Rene Haas told Reuters its business for new chip designs indicates a strong outlook.

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SoftBank plans to take the British tech company public. Regulatory hurdles stopped a deal to sell it to U.S. chipmaker Nvidia Corp.

Arm, which makes the basic blueprint used to design chips, had revenue of $2.7 billion last year, up 35% from the previous year. Licensing business revenue rose 61% to $1.13 billion and royalties, tracking the numbers of chips sold using Arm technology, rose 20% to $1.54 billion.

Haas said the licensing business is "all about companies spending money with Arm about designing chips for the future".

Asked about the revenue outlook, he said: "We've never done over a billion dollars. So I would say that's a good leading indicator of the demand for the product."

Haas said 29.2 billion chips using Arm technology were shipped last year, nearly 8 billion in the fourth quarter. He said Arm's focus on the automotive sector three to four years ago was paying off and revenue from that segment more than doubled last year thanks to electrification and increasing computing power for cars.