Arm Seeks $52B Valuation In Largest Tech IPO In 2 Years

Marlize van Romburgh marlizevr

Arm Holdings plans to go public at a valuation as high as $52 billion when the British chip-design company lists on the Nasdaq, it said in regulatory filings on Tuesday.

That’s down from the previously reported $60 billion to $70 billion valuation SoftBank-owned Arm was apparently seeking, but would still make Arm the largest tech IPO since electric vehicle-maker Rivian went public in late 2021. It’s also down from the $64 billion valuation set when SoftBank recently acquired the rest of the company it didn’t already own directly from its Vision Fund.

A successful Arm debut could breathe new life into a depressed IPO market that has paused many venture-backed startups’ plans to go public for the past two years. Last month, grocery delivery startup Instacart and marketing analytics company Klaviyo also filed their initial public offering plans, in another signal that the IPO drought may finally ease.

Arm said it plans to raise $4.87 billion via the offering. Arm customers including Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet and AMD have agreed to invest in the IPO, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Arm’s performance will be especially closely watched, given that many of 2021’s IPOs have not gone on to great success as public companies — close to half of the 171 companies that went public in 2021 at billion-dollar-plus valuations and that are still trading are now worth less than $500 million, according to a recent analysis of The Crunchbase Billion-Dollar Exits Board.

The few companies that have ventured onto the public markets this year have also posted a very mixed track record.