Arm Plans to Compete with Its Own Customers, Launch Own-Brand AI Chips, Sources Claim

Chip design giant Arm is reportedly looking to break with tradition and build its first own-brand processor range in decades — partnering with Meta to power the company's data centers for the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Arm can trace its beginnings to Cambridge, UK-based Acorn Computers: established in 1978, the company had enjoyed considerable success with its BBC Micro family of microcomputers but struggled to find a suitable processor for a more powerful business-ready follow-up. In-house engineers Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson, inspired by the Berkeley RISC Project, designed their own processor in response — dubbed the Acorn RISC Machine, from which ARM got its name.

While Acorn itself is no more, ARM — now Arm — continues, though today under SoftBank ownership. Its processor IP has found its way into chips ranging from ultra-low-power microprocessors to server-class many-core parts, but in almost all cases Arm itself has not produced commercial hardware; instead, it licenses its IP to companies including Samsung, Qualcomm, and Apple for use in their own system-on-chip and microcontroller designs to be launched under their own brands.

A move to build and sell own-brand chips — a return to its roots at Acorn, in effect — would flip this decades-old approach on its head, and put Arm in direct competition with its own customers. Nevertheless, this is what sources speaking to the Financial Times have claimed — with Facebook owner Meta name-dropped as the first customer for Arm-branded parts, which will likely be used in data centers to meet the growing compute demand of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Arm's in-house processor, the sources claim, would be a server-class chip, and may hinge around SoftBank's planned acquisition of Arm-based server processor maker Ampere. Even if the company sticks to that side of the market, it's a move its IP customers will likely find a threat — especially given that Arm will have incentives to keep its most powerful technology exclusive to own-brand parts, allowing third-parties to license the IP only when it feels it has sufficiently exploited the technology itself.

Neither Arm, SoftBank, nor Meta have commented on the rumor, and it's not clear when — even assuming "if" — such a chip would appear on the market, nor whether it would be offered for open sale or kept back for Meta and other pre-vetted partners; sources have, however, claimed that an official unveiling could take place in the summer.