Arm Holdings (ARM) — Company Research

Last Updated: 22 April 2026

Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ: ARM) designs the CPU instruction-set architecture that powers more than 99% of the world’s smartphones, every hyperscaler’s custom server CPU (AWS Graviton, Google Axion, Microsoft Cobalt, NVIDIA Grace/Vera) and an accelerating share of AI data-centre, automotive and IoT silicon. The Cambridge-based company — still roughly 90% owned by SoftBank Group — licences blueprints rather than manufacturing chips, collecting an upfront licence fee and a per-chip royalty on every device shipped. Fiscal 2025 (ended 31 March 2025) revenue reached $4.01 billion, and Arm has now posted four consecutive billion-dollar quarters, culminating in Q3 FY26 revenue of $1.24 billion (+26% YoY) reported on 4 February 2026. On 24 March 2026 Arm took its biggest strategic turn in 35 years, launching the Arm AGI CPU — a 136-core Neoverse V3 data-centre chip it now sells as finished silicon, with Meta as lead customer and OpenAI, Cerebras, Cloudflare, F5, SAP, SK Telecom and others signed on. Yesterday (21 April 2026) SoftBank extended CEO Rene Haas’s remit to also run SoftBank Group International, coordinating the group’s semiconductor and AI portfolio. This research pulls together the latest filings, press releases and management commentary — for live pricing see our live charts, for earnings timings see the economic calendar, and discuss on the forum.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Company	Arm Holdings plc
Ticker	NASDAQ: ARM
Sector (ChartsView)	Technology / Semiconductors & IP
Founded	1990 (Cambridge, UK)
Headquarters	Cambridge, United Kingdom
CEO	Rene Haas (since February 2022; additionally CEO of SoftBank Group International from 21 April 2026)
CFO	Jason Child
Revenue (FY2025)	$4.01bn (+24% YoY)
Net income (FY2025)	$792m (GAAP)
Operating EPS (FY2025 non-GAAP)	$1.57
Market cap	~$186bn (21 April 2026)
Employees	~8,330 (FY2025 year-end, +17% YoY)
Dividend	None
Exchanges listed	NASDAQ (ADS)
Website	arm.com
Major shareholder	SoftBank Group (~89.9%)

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Distilled from the full report below — factual only, no ratings.

Bull Case

• Royalty acceleration — Royalty revenue hit a record $737m in Q3 FY26 (+27% YoY); Armv9 has now passed 50% of royalty mix and each v9 chip pays roughly 2× the v8 rate.
• Cloud AI compounding — Data-centre royalty is growing more than 100% YoY for multiple quarters; AWS Graviton, Google Axion, Microsoft Cobalt 200, NVIDIA Vera and Meta MTIA pair with Arm Neoverse.
• CSS traction — 21 Compute Subsystem licences across 12 companies (Q3 FY26); CSS royalty mix is already in the teens and management sees it approaching half of royalties over time.
• Arm AGI CPU launched — The March 2026 in-house silicon launch (136 Neoverse V3 cores, Meta as lead customer, OpenAI/Cerebras/Cloudflare/F5/SAP/SK Telecom as partners) opens a multi-billion-dollar revenue stream Arm never addressed before.
• Stargate placement — Named technology partner in the OpenAI/Oracle/SoftBank/MGX Stargate AI infrastructure project; 6 May 2026 Q4 earnings release and AGM provide near-term catalysts.

Bear Case

• Extreme valuation — Trailing P/E around 234× and P/S near 40× leave no margin for error; any royalty deceleration would re-rate the stock hard.
• Customer concentration — Top five customers were ~56% of FY2025 revenue per the 20-F; losing Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung LSI or a hyperscaler would be material.
• Qualcomm litigation — A Delaware court ruled in Qualcomm’s favour and dismissed Arm’s remaining claim (October 2025); Arm is appealing and a separate Qualcomm trial is pending.
• RISC-V pressure — RISC-V has reached ~25% of global processor unit share with ~30% CAGR; China has adopted it as a national standard.
• SoftBank overhang — SoftBank still holds ~89.9%; any secondary placing would add supply to a tight ~10% free float and move the share price disproportionately.
• Channel conflict — Entering finished silicon with the AGI CPU puts Arm in direct competition with licensee customers — a structural conflict management must navigate.

3. What Does Arm Actually Do?

Arm designs — and licences — the CPU architecture (the instruction set) and the CPU cores themselves (Cortex, Neoverse), plus graphics (Mali/Immortalis), neural processing units (Ethos NPU), system IP and physical IP. Chip companies such as Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung, NVIDIA, AWS, Google and Microsoft take that intellectual property, add their own secret sauce, hand the design to a foundry (usually TSMC) and ship silicon. Arm owns no fab and manufactures no chips itself — historically. That changed on 24 March 2026 with the AGI CPU (see Section 7).

Revenue splits two ways:

• Royalty revenue — a per-chip fee paid on every Arm-based chip shipped, typically a small percentage of the chip’s selling price. FY2025: $2.17bn (~54% of total, +20% YoY). Q3 FY26: $737m (+27% YoY).
• Licence & other revenue — upfront fees for access to architecture or specific IP blocks, plus software, tools and services. FY2025: $1.84bn (~46%, +29% YoY). Q3 FY26: $505m (+25% YoY). SoftBank itself is an ~$200m/quarter licensee.

Segment	% of revenue (FY2025)	What it is
Royalty	54% ($2.17bn)	Per-chip fee on every Arm-based chip shipped; royalty per chip is typically a small percentage of the chip’s selling price. Grew +20% YoY in FY2025.
Licence & other	46% ($1.84bn)	Upfront fees for architecture and IP-block licences, plus software, tools, and services revenue. Grew +29% YoY in FY2025.

Royalties are also split by end market. Arm reports that non-mobile segments (cloud/infrastructure, automotive, IoT) now account for more than half of total royalties, with mobile still the single largest category. Indicative mix (FY2025 commentary from company filings and investor presentations): Mobile/client ~45%; Infrastructure/data centre mid-20s; IoT/embedded mid-teens; Automotive mid-teens — exact percentages vary quarter to quarter. Cloud AI royalty has grown more than 100% YoY and is now described by management as the biggest individual growth driver.

4. The Business Model

Arm sells two things: upfront licences to its IP (architecture licences, TLAs, and bundled Compute Subsystems or CSS) and a royalty per chip that ships containing that IP. Licensing is lumpy and front-loaded; royalties compound for decades — customers that adopted Armv7 in the 2010s are still paying royalties today on products in the field.

• Per-chip royalty rates typically sit in the low single-digit-percent range of chip ASP. Armv9 commands roughly double the v8 rate; Compute Subsystems carry a further uplift because Arm delivers more of the design.
• Lifetime chip shipments more than 350 billion Arm-based chips shipped cumulatively (as of Q3 FY26 commentary).
• Gross margin is structurally very high — FY2025 non-GAAP gross margin was ~97% because Arm has no fab, no materials cost and no logistics; the main operating cost is engineering payroll.
• CSS model Arm delivers a ready-to-manufacture subsystem (CPU cluster plus physical implementation plus verification) instead of raw RTL. 21 CSS licences across 12 companies as of Q3 FY26; five customers already shipping CSS-based silicon.
• Moat 40+ years of software ecosystem, instruction-set compatibility, partner toolchains and hundreds of thousands of engineers trained on Arm. Switching away is expensive and slow — hence why even RISC-V adopters typically still ship Arm in parallel.
• No government-credit dependency unlike fabs (TSMC, Intel Foundry, Samsung) Arm does not rely on CHIPS Act or similar subsidies — it has no production assets to subsidise.

5. Financial Health

Annual trend (fiscal year ending 31 March; figures from filings and shareholder letters):

Year	Revenue	YoY	Royalty	Licensing	Op margin (non-GAAP)	Free cash flow
FY2022	$2.70bn	—	$1.54bn	$1.16bn	~40%	$757m
FY2023	$2.68bn	(1)%	$1.68bn	$1.00bn	~25%	$750m
FY2024	$3.23bn	+20%	$1.80bn	$1.43bn	~36%	$760m
FY2025	$4.01bn	+24%	$2.17bn	$1.84bn	~46%	~$178m

Note: FY2025 free cash flow was depressed by one-off tax and working-capital items; management reiterated underlying cash-conversion remains high.

Quarterly trend (most recent five quarters):

Quarter	Revenue	Op EPS	GAAP EPS
Q3 FY25 (Dec-24)	$983m	$0.39	$0.18
Q4 FY25 (Mar-25)	$1.24bn	$0.55	$0.21
Q1 FY26 (Jun-25)	$1.05bn	$0.35	$0.12
Q2 FY26 (Sep-25)	$1.14bn	$0.39	$0.22
Q3 FY26 (Dec-25)	$1.24bn	$0.43	$0.25

Balance sheet remains net-cash. Non-GAAP operating profit was $505m in Q3 FY26 (+14% YoY). GAAP net income swings quarter to quarter on stock-based compensation. Management’s Q4 FY26 guidance (issued 4 February 2026): revenue $1.47bn ±$50m (+18% YoY at midpoint), non-GAAP EPS $0.58 ±$0.04.

6. Valuation & Market Data

Market data as of 21 April 2026 close (source: Nasdaq / TradingView / stockanalysis.com).

Metric	Value
Current price	~$175.49
Market cap	~$186.4bn
Enterprise value	~$183.3bn
Shares outstanding	~1.06bn ADS equivalent
Free float	~136m shares (~10% of total)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~234x
Forward P/E (2026 op EPS mid)	~82x–91x
P/S (TTM)	~40x
EV/EBITDA (trailing)	~169x
Price to FCF	~191x
52-week high	~$183.16
52-week low	~$95.32
Dividend	None
Short interest (% of float)	~10% (~15.4m shares; short ratio ~2.2 days)
Short interest (shares)	~15.4m
Days to cover	~2.2
Short interest reporting date	31 Mar 2026
Put/Call ratio	Not centrally reported (mixed flow per OCC daily data)

Raw metrics are shown without judgement — they sit at the top of the large-cap semiconductor range because Arm’s revenue model (near-100% gross margin, royalty compounding) is structurally unlike traditional chip companies.

7. What Are They Building?

Arm AGI CPU (March 2026) — the headline pivot. Announced 24 March 2026, the AGI CPU is Arm’s first production silicon product in 35 years. Up to 136 Neoverse V3 cores on TSMC 3nm across two dies, all-core ~3.2GHz (3.7GHz boost), 300W TDP, 12-channel DDR5-8800 (>800 GB/s aggregate memory bandwidth, sub-100ns target latency). Meta is the lead customer and co-developer, pairing the AGI CPU with its proprietary MTIA training/inference accelerators. Additional launch partners include OpenAI, Cerebras, Cloudflare, F5, Positron, Rebellions, SAP and SK Telecom. Volume shipments: end of 2026. On the launch call management framed the opportunity as ~$1bn of revenue in 2028 scaling to roughly $15bn annually within five years.

Compute Subsystems (CSS). 21 CSS licences across 12 companies as of Q3 FY26 (two new licences signed that quarter). CSS is already “well into double digits” as a share of royalty mix and management expects it to head toward half of royalties over the next few years. Three CSS flavours currently: Infrastructure (for data-centre / hyperscaler silicon), Client (flagship mobile, laptop), and Automotive.

Hyperscaler data-centre momentum. Every major hyperscaler custom server CPU is Arm Neoverse: AWS Graviton 4 (shipping) and Graviton5 (announced December 2025 with 192 cores), Microsoft Cobalt 100 and the newly announced Cobalt 200 (132 cores), Google Axion, NVIDIA Grace and the newly announced Vera (88 cores). Arm Neoverse passed one billion cores deployed in Q3 FY26. Management’s guide is that Arm’s share in top hyperscaler new CPU deployments is heading toward 50%.

Client and mobile. Armv9.2-based Cortex-X925 (up to +41% AI uplift vs X4) and Immortalis-G925 GPU (+37% gaming performance, +34% AI) underpin 2025/2026 flagship smartphone SoCs. CSS for Client powers Windows-on-Arm laptops on TSMC 3nm. Arm Kleidi software libraries accelerate on-device AI inference.

Automotive. NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor uses Arm Neoverse V3AE as its CPU complex; MediaTek’s Dimensity Auto Cockpit C-X1 pairs Armv9.2-A CPUs with an NVIDIA Blackwell GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Chassis is Arm-based. December 2025: Rivian announced its third-generation Autonomy Computer on a custom Arm SoC — the first production car to ship Armv9. Tesla’s forthcoming Optimus humanoid robot is powered by a custom Arm-based AI processor.

IoT and edge AI. Cortex-A320 (smallest Armv9-A core) and Ethos-U85 NPU target always-on AI at the edge.

Stargate partnership. Arm is named as a core technology partner in the OpenAI / Oracle / SoftBank / MGX Stargate AI infrastructure project (up to $500bn commitments over four years). Stargate UK extensions were announced in late 2025.

8. Competitive Landscape

Arm competes on three axes: architecture (Arm vs x86 vs RISC-V), IP blocks (Arm vs MIPS/SiFive/Tenstorrent/Alibaba Xuantie cores) and — since March 2026 — finished silicon (AGI CPU vs AMD EPYC, Intel Xeon, Ampere, in-house hyperscaler parts).

Peer	Market cap	Key metric	Arm’s position vs them
Intel (x86 server / client CPU)	~$140bn	Data-centre CPU unit share ~40%	Arm is smaller in data-centre today but hyperscaler new-deploy mix is trending toward 50% Arm — structurally ahead on perf/watt
AMD (x86 server / client CPU)	~$250bn	EPYC data-centre share ~35%	Similar revenue trajectory; AMD is larger and further along commercially, Arm is licensor to multiple AMD-alternative custom parts
NVIDIA (accelerator + Grace/Vera CPU)	~$3.4tn	Data-centre revenue >$130bn run-rate	NVIDIA is a customer and partner: Grace/Vera CPUs are Arm Neoverse; Arm benefits from NVIDIA’s AI dominance rather than competing head-on
Qualcomm (mobile / client IP)	~$190bn	Smartphone modem/SoC leadership	Largest royalty payer; ongoing Nuvia architecture-licence litigation is the key risk to the relationship
MediaTek (mobile / edge SoCs)	~$75bn	Top Android SoC share	Major royalty payer; heavy CSS adopter; volume compounder for Arm
SiFive / Tenstorrent / Alibaba Xuantie (RISC-V)	Private / small caps	RISC-V ~25% of processor units	Fastest-growing architectural threat; Arm retains the high-performance and smartphone moat but RISC-V is winning on the low end and in China

At the global processor-architecture level the commonly cited unit-share split in early 2026 is roughly: Arm ~55%, RISC-V ~25%, x86 ~20%. RISC-V volumes skew to low-end MCU/IoT — Arm still dominates high-performance and smartphone.

Within Arm’s own IP, Apple is a special case: its M-series / A-series chips use an Arm architecture licence — Apple designs its own cores but pays Arm royalties on each chip. Arm and Apple signed a long-term extension of that agreement in 2023. Qualcomm’s Nuvia-derived Oryon cores are also architecture-licensed; that contract is the subject of the ongoing litigation (see Section 10).

9. Leadership and Ownership

• Rene Haas — President and CEO (since February 2022); previously ran Arm’s IP Products Group; joined Arm in 2013 from NVIDIA. From 21 April 2026 additionally CEO of SoftBank Group International.
• Jason Child — Chief Financial Officer (since October 2022, ex-Splunk CFO)
• Masayoshi Son — SoftBank Group Founder, Chairman and CEO; controlling shareholder and driver of Stargate / AI-infrastructure strategy
• Young Sohn — Arm board director; Chairman of Harman International, former Chief Strategy Officer at Samsung
• Jing Xiandong — Arm China Chairman (partially-owned affiliate handling China licensing)

Board and ownership: SoftBank Group holds approximately 89.9% of Arm’s ordinary shares. Free float is roughly 136m shares (~10%). No dividend. Arm has not announced a buyback.

Recent insider Form 4 activity (all pre-set 10b5-1 sales — no material discretionary open-market purchases reported over the past 12 months):

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Rene Haas (CEO)	14 Apr 2026	Sell	9,299	$160.57–$163.00	~$1.5m	10b5-1
Rene Haas (CEO)	25–26 Mar 2026	Sell	31,853	~$160–$163	~$5.1m	10b5-1
Jason Child (CFO)	25 Mar 2026	Sell	21,280	$148.37	~$3.2m	10b5-1

Net insider activity over the last 6 months: net seller, all pre-set 10b5-1.

10. Risks and Challenges

• Customer concentration (Concentration). Per the FY2025 20-F, Arm derived approximately 56% of total net revenue from its top five customers (including Arm China). Losing or disputing any single top customer is material.
• Qualcomm / Nuvia litigation (Regulatory). A Delaware jury found in Qualcomm’s favour in December 2024; in October 2025 Judge Noreika issued a full and final judgment dismissing Arm’s remaining claim and ruling Qualcomm did not breach the Nuvia architecture licence. Arm is appealing. A separate Qualcomm-v-Arm case alleging anti-competitive conduct was scheduled for trial in March 2026 — status as of publication: ongoing.
• RISC-V competition (Competitive). RISC-V now represents ~25% of global processor unit share (up from essentially zero a decade ago) and is growing at >30% CAGR. China has adopted RISC-V as its preferred national architecture as a response to U.S. export controls on advanced Arm-based designs. SiFive, Tenstorrent and Alibaba’s Xuantie are the leading commercial RISC-V core designers.
• China exposure (Regulatory). Arm’s revenue from Chinese customers flows largely through Arm China, a partially-owned affiliate with a complex governance history. Ongoing U.S./UK export-control updates can constrain what designs Arm can licence into China. HiSilicon (Huawei) is notably absent from the customer list since U.S. restrictions.
• SoftBank overhang (Financial). SoftBank owns ~89.9%. Any secondary placing, collar or margin-loan unwind would add supply to a tight ~10% free float and could move the share price meaningfully. SoftBank has not publicly announced any plan to reduce its stake.
• Valuation sensitivity (Market & Demand). At ~40x sales and ~230x trailing earnings, very small changes to royalty growth or licensing timing can drive large moves in the share price.
• Channel conflict from AGI CPU (Competitive). By shipping its own finished silicon Arm now competes with chip-design customers that also pay it royalties — a balancing act management will have to handle carefully.
• Concentration in AI data-centre narrative (Market & Demand). A significant portion of the growth thesis depends on continued hyperscaler AI capex. Any pause — or a shift toward purely accelerator-led architectures that de-emphasise CPU orchestration — would slow Arm’s data-centre compounder.

11. Recent Developments

Last 48 hours

• 21 April 2026 — SoftBank names Rene Haas CEO of SoftBank Group International (continues as Arm CEO). Role focuses on coordinating the SBG International semiconductor and AI portfolio.

Earlier

• 14 April 2026 — Rene Haas Form 4: 10b5-1 sale of 9,299 ordinary shares at ~$160.57–$163.00.
• 8 April 2026 — Arm announces Q4 FY2026 earnings release date of Wednesday 6 May 2026 (after the U.S. close; webcast 17:00 ET / 22:00 BST).
• 24 March 2026 — Launch of the Arm AGI CPU: 136-core Neoverse V3 data-centre chip on TSMC 3nm. Meta is lead customer; OpenAI, Cerebras, Cloudflare, F5, Positron, Rebellions, SAP and SK Telecom are commercial partners. Arm stock rose ~16% on the day. Management framed the silicon opportunity as ~$1bn by 2028, scaling to ~$15bn annually over five years.
• 25–26 March 2026 — Rene Haas 10b5-1 sale of 31,853 shares; Jason Child 10b5-1 sale of 21,280 shares (25 March) at $148.37.
• 4 February 2026 — Q3 FY26 results: revenue $1.24bn (+26% YoY), royalty $737m (+27%), licence $505m (+25%), non-GAAP EPS $0.43. Q4 guide $1.47bn ±$50m revenue, non-GAAP EPS $0.58 ±$0.04.
• December 2025 — Rivian announces its third-generation Autonomy Computer on a custom Arm SoC; first production car to deploy Armv9. AWS announces Graviton5 (192 cores). Microsoft announces Cobalt 200 (132 cores). NVIDIA announces the Vera CPU (88 Arm cores).
• 5 November 2025 — Q2 FY26 results: revenue $1.14bn (+34% YoY), record royalty $620m, licensing $515m, GAAP net income $238m.
• October 2025 — Delaware District Court issues final judgment in Qualcomm-v-Arm, rejecting Arm’s remaining claim and ruling Nuvia/Qualcomm did not breach the architecture licence. Arm files notice of appeal.
• 30 July 2025 — Q1 FY26 results: revenue $1.05bn (+12% YoY), royalty $585m (+25%).
• January 2025 — Arm confirmed publicly as a core technology partner in the Stargate AI infrastructure project (OpenAI / Oracle / SoftBank / MGX).

12. Key Dates Coming Up

• 6 May 2026 — Arm Q4 FY2026 and full-year FY2026 earnings release (after U.S. close); conference call 17:00 ET / 22:00 BST.
• H2 calendar 2026 — AGI CPU volume shipments begin (per launch-day guidance).
• Summer 2026 — Arm Annual General Meeting (date to be confirmed by 8-K/6-K).
• Through 2026 — Appeal hearing schedule in Qualcomm-v-Arm litigation; separate Qualcomm antitrust-style case proceedings.
• Ongoing 2026 — New Armv9 flagship smartphone SoC launches from Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung LSI; continued Graviton5, Cobalt 200, Vera, Axion hyperscaler deployments.
• Ongoing 2026 — SoftBank World 2026 keynote is the traditional venue for further Arm roadmap and customer announcements.

Related

• Live charts — intraday ARM pricing and peers
• Economic calendar — upcoming earnings and macro events
• Forum — discuss ARM with other readers
• Blog — latest ChartsView commentary

Disclaimer: This research article has been produced from primary sources — SEC filings, company press releases, earnings-call transcripts and official investor presentations — and is provided for information only. It is not investment advice, a recommendation, an offer or a solicitation to buy or sell any security. No analyst ratings or price targets are included. Figures are as of 22 April 2026 or the most recent publicly available disclosure; always verify current data directly from the company and from your broker before making any investment decision. Chartsview.co.uk and its authors accept no liability for losses arising from the use of this content.