Chip designer Arm looks to ride the AI boom with the biggest US IPO since 2021

• Arm, the British semiconductor firm owned by Softbank, is preparing to go public in September.
• It's on course to be the largest IPO of 2023 – and may become one of the largest in tech stock history.

Arm, the chip designer owned by SoftBank, is going public on the Nasdaq in September in what's set to be the biggest initial public offering in the US since 2021.

The British company's IPO – which hopes to raise up to $10 billion according to some estimates – is set to be the largest US listing since electric carmaker Rivian fetched over $12 billion in October 2021.

And it could become one of the largest tech-based floats in history – following Alibaba's $25 billion 2014 listing and Meta's (then-Facebook) $16 billion debut in 2012.

Though the brand is not well-known by consumers, its technology is present in over 90% of all smartphones. "We estimate that approximately 70 percent of the world's population uses Arm-based products," the company said in its prospectus, seen by the Financial Times.

But relisting on public markets – having been taken private by tech investor SoftBank in 2016 – puts Arm on track to take advantage of the AI boom in markets this year.

The UK-based semiconductor firm, which has a near-monopoly in designing chips for smartphones, is now seeking to expand into the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence, which has supercharged markets this year.

Semiconductor giant Nvidia, which has emerged as one of the stock market's biggest winners in 2023 after riding the ChatGPT wave to a $1 trillion-plus valuation, has long sought to acquire a stake in Arm.

Though a merger between the two firms fell through in 2020, Nvidia remains in talks to become an anchor investor in the company as it hits the market early September.

A stake in Arm would likely complement Nvidia's competencies as the world's leading chipmaker. The Santa Clara-based firm's stock is the best performer on the S&P 500 index this year – its share price has rocketed almost 230% from one year ago.