Exclusive: Amazon in talks to become anchor investor in Arm ahead of IPO

NEW YORK, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Amazon.com (AMZN.O) is in talks about joining other technology companies as a cornerstone investor in SoftBank Group Corp’s (9984.T) Arm Ltd ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Amazon’s potential involvement in the IPO, which has not previously been reported, underscores Arm’s significance in cloud computing. Amazon Web Services, the internet giant’s cloud business, makes its own processing chip called Graviton, using Arm’s design.

Arm plans to list on the Nasdaq in early September, according to one of the people. The company is seeking to raise $8 billion to $10 billion, Reuters has reported.

Arm and Amazon declined to comment.

Arm has been in talks with about 10 technology companies, including Intel (INTC.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Nvidia (NVDA.O), about an investment ahead of its IPO, Reuters has reported. These investors would not gain any board seat or control, according to the sources.

Arm is hoping that bringing cornerstone investors onboard will strengthen its ties with top customers and boost the IPO’s appeal, one of the sources said.

The IPO is expected to be a much-needed boon for SoftBank, which is battling to turn around its massive Vision Fund, after many of its bets on technology startups soured.

SoftBank has been targeting a listing for Arm since its deal to sell the chip designer to Nvidia for $40 billion collapsed last year because of objections from U.S. and European antitrust regulators.

Since then, Arm’s business has fared better than the broader chip industry thanks to its focus on data center servers and personal computers that generate higher royalty payments.

Reporting by Echo Wang and Anirban Sen in New York
Additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco
Editing by Matthew Lewis

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