NVIDIA Exits Arm With $140 Mn Share Sale

NVIDIA has sold its remaining stake in Arm Holdings (primarily owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group). As a result, the giant offloaded 1.1 million shares, worth about $140 million, according to a regulatory filing cited by Bloomberg. 

The sale may have taken place in the fourth quarter of last year, with NVIDIA now exiting the company. The selloff ends NVIDIA’s investment in the chip technology company it tried to acquire in 2020 for $40 billion. 

While Arm has declined to comment, NVIDIA has not responded to AIM’s email query as of publishing. 

This development comes after SoftBank sold its entire NVIDIA stake worth $5.83 billion in November last year. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son had said the decision wasn’t driven by doubts about the chipmaker but by SoftBank’s need to finance major new AI projects, hinting at an OpenAI investment.

While this signals the end of NVIDIA’s monetary relationship with Arm, the companies will continue to work together on technical licensing for various chip architectures, according to reports.

NVIDIA’s agreement to buy Arm in 2020 would have been the largest deal in the chip sector. However, the deal collapsed in February 2022, as regulators in several markets opposed the transaction. Customers also objected, citing Arm’s role in supplying technology to much of the semiconductor industry.

Arm’s designs underpin most advanced semiconductors worldwide. Its independence was viewed as critical to maintaining competition in the sector.

In February 2022, the companies terminated the agreement. Arm later moved ahead with plans to sell shares to the public.

NVIDIA has since built a strong presence across the technology industry. It is currently the most valuable company in the world and holds investments worth billions of dollars in some major tech companies, including Intel, Nokia, CoreWeave, and Synopsys.