The flamboyant farmer's son who rose to become one of the world's richest people is hoping that the US listing of 10 percent of the chip designer will raise $4.5-5.2 billion.
That values the British firm at up to $52 billion, a healthy gain on the $32 billion SoftBank spent in 2016 to take control of it.
However, the valuation of Arm, whose products are used in 99 percent of the world's smartphones, is less than the $60-70 billion SoftBank was rumoured to be hoping for.
Such bullishness is typical for Son, 66, a man who when asked about going bald said: "My hair is not receding. I'm advancing."
The IPO "looks likely to be a damp squib as all indications are that it has much lower exposure to AI than what Son has been trumpeting-- no surprise there", Amir Anvarzadeh from Asymmetric Advisors said in a research note last week.
This is a reference to artificial intelligence, a future growth area that excites investors but where Arm -- which makes its money from smartphone microprocessors -- is seen as less strong.
Son was born in Japan in 1957 to ethnic Korean parents who scratched a living rearing chickens and pigs while battling discrimination.
"We collected leftover food from neighbours and fed it to cattle. It was slimy. We worked hard," he said later. "And I've worked hard."
He went to the United States aged 16 and while studying at Berkeley developed a translation machine that he sold for around $1 million.
- Winning bets -
He founded investment group SoftBank in 1981 and made colossally successful early bets on Yahoo! and Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba in the 1990s.
The former reportedly made him the world's richest person for a few days and the latter -- one of the biggest venture capital successes -- made him seem like he had the Midas Touch.
On a high, Son launched in 2017 his tech-focused Vision Fund investment vehicle, securing billions in funding from others -- including Saudi Arabia -- won over by his investment magic.
At his eagerly awaited news conferences, he would show slides showing geese laying golden eggs and set out heady visions of an AI future.
But Yahoo! and Alibaba proved to be the exceptions, not the rule, and many other investments failed, some of them spectacularly.
This included office-sharing firm WeWork, ride-hailing business Uber and Oyo Rooms that cost Softbank painful amounts of cash.
"I won't make any excuses. It was a very harsh lesson," Son said after WeWork lost Softbank $4.6 billion in 2019.
In the past two years Softbank has reported losses of around $20 billion.
WeWork is only a going concern thanks to SoftBank's repeated cash injections but last month the US firm warned it might not survive.
The Arm IPO, this year's biggest flotation, is proving popular and is 10 times oversubscribed, prompting SoftBank to consider raising the price, according to reports.
Booking a gain from the Arm IPO "will help confirm he can deliver positive returns", said David Gibson of MST Financial.
SoftBank's remaining 90 percent in Arm could also be leveraged -- like with Alibaba -- to borrow money to invest in potential future golden eggs.
"Long term... I think Arm becomes a tool for financing investment into other unlisted tech companies," Gibson told AFP.
TSMC plans $100 million investment in Arm IPO: board
Taipei (AFP) Sept 12, 2023 -
Taiwanese chip giant TSMC said Tuesday its board has approved an investment of up to $100 million in British chipmaker Arm when it lists on New York's Nasdaq exchange this week.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company controls more than half of the world's output of microchips, the lifeblood of the modern economy found in everything from smartphones to cars and missiles.
It said in a statement its board of directors "approved an investment in Arm Holdings in an amount not exceeding US$100 million based on Arm's share price at IPO (Initial Public Offering)".
Arm will be listed on the Nasdaq on Thursday in the biggest such offering in two years, a multi-billion-dollar wager by principal shareholder SoftBank Group in a still uncertain market.
SoftBank hopes to raise between $4.5 billion and $5.2 billion through the offering of some 10 percent of the chip designer.
That values the jewel of British technology, whose products are used in 99 percent of the world's smartphones, at up to $52 billion.
Taiwanese media said TSMC and Arm have been partners for many years and signed a cooperation agreement as early as 2000.
Arm also aims to be a major player in artificial intelligence and its IPO follows a surge in the share price of chipmakers such as Nvidia.
Interest is booming in companies building the hardware needed for AI to flourish in the wake of the successful launch of the chatbot ChatGPT.
Nvidia is among the technology leaders listed as "cornerstone investors" in Arm, along with other tech titans such as Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Google International, Intel and Samsung Electronics, Arm said in a filing last week.
Related Links
Computer Chip Architecture, Technology and Manufacture
Nano Technology News From SpaceMart.com
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
