Arm architecture underpinning the connected world

Unlike traditional chip manufacturers, Arm does not produce silicon. Instead, it licenses processor architectures and cores to a global ecosystem of semiconductor and systems companies. This IP-centric model has enabled widespread adoption, allowing licensees to customise and manufacture Arm-based chips to suit a wide variety of applications.

Since its founding in 1990 as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple Computers (now Apple Inc.), and VLSI Technology (now NXP Semiconductors), Arm (Advanced RISC Machines) has become synonymous with efficient, low-power computing. Its Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) architecture, first used in Acorn’s Archimedes computers, offered a compact and energy-efficient alternative to more complex processor designs. That same emphasis on efficiency has made Arm the de facto standard in mobile computing, where battery life and thermal management are critical.

As of 2024, more than 250 billion Arm-based chips have shipped globally. The company’s instruction set architecture (ISA) is widely adopted not only in smartphones, where it dominates, but also in areas such as automotive, Cloud computing, industrial automation, and embedded systems. The launch of the Armv9 architecture in 2021 marked a strategic shift, aimed at strengthening security and performance to support emerging demands from AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing.

Arm’s Total Compute approach highlights the company's broader strategic vision. This holistic framework seeks to address the entire system – from CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs to interconnects and software tooling – to help partners optimise performance, power, and security across increasingly heterogeneous compute environments.

Following its acquisition by SoftBank in 2016 and a later, failed takeover attempt by NVIDIA, Arm returned to the public markets with its IPO on Nasdaq in September 2023. The listing was one of the largest technology IPOs in recent years, showing the company's continued relevance in a semiconductor industry shaped by geopolitical tension, AI acceleration, and the push for compute diversity.

It's not only its technology that makes Arm successful, but also has a flourishing ecosystem. A strong developer community, extensive tooling support, and collaborative partnerships with foundries, OS vendors, and OEMs have enabled fast innovation on top of Arm’s platforms. The company continues to invest in this ecosystem to ensure scalability, particularly as performance-per-watt becomes a critical metric across the Edge and data centre.

In the automotive space, Arm's IP underpins advanced driver assistance systems and central compute platforms, supported by initiatives such as Arm Safety Ready. In the embedded sector, the Cortex-M family is a staple for microcontroller-based designs, thanks to its balance of performance, efficiency, and ease of integration.

With the world moving towards smarter, more connected devices, Arm is positioning itself as a foundational layer for a new era of computing. While it may not manufacture chips, its architecture is embedded in the DNA of digital infrastructure – silent, but essential.