Apple secures long-term partnership with Softbank-owned Arm for chip technology

Global tech giant Apple has signed a new deal with Softbank-owned, chipset manufacturing unit, Arm, for its chipset technology which was announced on Tuesday.

According to Reuters, the partnership is said to extend beyond 2040 as per the recent filling by the chipset maker. SoftBank Group, which owns Arm, intends to sell 95.5 million American depositary shares of the British company for between $47 and $51 per share (approximately Rs. 3,900 to 4,235), according to a filing by Arm.

The computer architecture for the majority of smartphones in use today was developed by Arm, which it licences to companies like Apple and numerous others. Apple creates its own unique chips for its iPhones, iPads, and Macs using technology from Arm.

Partnership to benefit Apple in the long run

The two firms have a long history together; before the launching of their "Newton" portable computer in 1993, which utilised an Arm-based processor chip, Apple was one of the first companies that joined Arm in 1990. The Newton was a failure, but Arm went on to rule mobile phone processors thanks to its low power consumption, which prolongs battery life.

Several significant technological firms, including Apple, contributed $735 million (or nearly Rs. 6,105 crore) to Arm's initial public offering on Tuesday. The news that Apple was one of the strategic investors that agreed to purchase shares was originally confirmed by Reuters last week.

The fact that Arm's prior IPO registration materials, which were made public on August 21, did not mention the contract reported on Tuesday suggests that it was inked between then and 5 September.

Apple is currently releasing all of its smartphones and other devices with its Bionic A-series chipsets and the M-series processors used in its Macs and desktops. This deal could be crucial for Apple as the industry is slowly shifting focus to more graphic and processing-intensive avenues like AI and Machine Learning.