ARM

Arm Holdings plc is a British semiconductor and software design company headquartered in Cambridge, England, that designs instruction set architectures and related technologies for computing devices. Founded in 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines, Arm pioneered the development of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture, which became foundational to mobile computing and embedded systems. The company does not manufacture chips itself but instead licenses its intellectual property to thousands of semiconductor manufacturers worldwide, including Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, and MediaTek, who integrate Arm designs into their processors. Arm's architecture powers the vast majority of smartphones, tablets, and IoT devices globally, making it one of the most influential technology companies in modern computing. The company generates revenue through licensing fees, royalties, and software tools that help partners develop and optimize processors based on Arm designs. In 2023, Arm completed a highly anticipated initial public offering on the Nasdaq, becoming a publicly traded company after being owned by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank since 2016. Arm's continued dominance in mobile and embedded systems architecture, combined with growing applications in data centers and artificial intelligence, underscores its significance as a critical infrastructure provider in the semiconductor industry.