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Arm CEO Rene Haas and executives cheer, as Softbank’s Arm, chip design firm, holds an initial public offering (IPO) at Nasdaq Market site in New York, U.S., September 14, 2023.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Arm Holdings, the chip design company controlled by SoftBank, jumped nearly 20% during intraday trading on Thursday after selling shares at $51 a piece in its IPO.

At the open, Arm was valued at almost $60 billion. The company, trading under ticker symbol “ARM,” sold around 95.5 million shares. SoftBank, which took the company private in 2016, controls around 90% of shares outstanding.

On Wednesday, Arm priced shares at the upper end of its expected range. On Thursday, the stock first traded at $56.10.

It’s a hefty premium for the British chip company. At a $60 billion valuation, Arm’s price-to-earnings multiple would be over 110 based on the most recent fiscal year profit. That’s comparable to Nvidia’s valuation, which trades at 108 times earnings, but without Nvidia’s 170% growth forecast for the current quarter.

Arm CFO Jason Child told CNBC in an interview that the company is focusing on royalty growth and providing products to its customers that cost and do more.

Arm opens at $56.10 per share in market debut

Many of Arm’s royalties come from products released decades ago. About half of the company’s royalty revenue, which totaled $1.68 billion in 2022, comes from products released between 1990 and 2012.

“As a CFO, it’s one of the better business models I’ve seen. I joke sometimes that those older products are like the Beatles catalog, they just keep delivering royalties. Some of those products are three decades old,” Child said.

In a presentation to investors, Arm said it expects the total market for its chip designs to be worth about $250 billion by 2025, including growth in chip designs for data centers and cars. Arm’s revenue in its fiscal year that ended in March slipped less than 1% from the prior year to $2.68 billion.

Arm’s architecture is used in nearly every smartphone chip, and outlines how a central processor works at its most basic level, such as doing arithmetic or accessing computer memory.

Child said that the company sold $735 million in shares to a group of strategic investors comprised of Apple, Google, Nvidia, Samsung, AMD, Intel, Cadence, Synopsis, Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It’s a testament to Arm’s influence among chip companies, which rely on Arm’s technology to design and build their own chips.

“There was there was interest to buy more than what was indicated, but we wanted to make sure we had a diverse set of shareholders,” Child said.

In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son emphasized how Arm technology is used in artificial intelligence chips, as he seeks to tie the firm to the recent boom in AI and machine learning. He also said he wanted to keep the company’s remaining Arm stake as long as possible.

The debut could kick open the market for technology IPOs, which have been paused for nearly two years. It’s the biggest technology offering of 2023.

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Government’s Intel intervention is ‘essential’ for national security, tech analyst says

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Government's Intel intervention is 'essential' for national security, tech analyst says

It's 'essential' for the Trump administration to take a stake in Intel: D.A. Davidson's Gil Luria

A government intervention in struggling chipmaker Intel is “essential” for the sake of national security, analyst Gil Luria said Friday, following a report that the Trump administration is weighing taking a stake in the company.

“We’re all capitalists,” Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We don’t want government to intervene and own private enterprise, but this is national security.”

Bloomberg reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering having the U.S. government take a stake in Intel. The news sent Intel shares higher, and the stock climbed again Friday.

Intel previously declined to comment on the report.

Luria said such a deal is needed to revive Intel and reduce the country’s reliance on companies like Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor to manufacture chips. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high-end technology to be made in the U.S.

Read more CNBC tech news

How the White House could structure such an intervention is still in question. Bloomberg reported Friday that the administration has discussed using funds from the CHIPS Act.

Intel received $7.9 billion from the Department of Commerce through the CHIPS Act, and it was awarded roughly $3 billion under the CHIPS Act for the Pentagon’s Secure Enclave program.

“Intel has had many opportunities over decades to get it right, and it hasn’t. So we need to intervene,” Luria said. “The government’s going to come in and it’s going to give Intel unfair advantages, and if it’s going to do that, it wants a piece of the business.”

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan met with Trump at the White House on Monday after the president called for his resignation based on allegations that he has ties to China.

Luria pointed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments that the rise of superintelligent AI could be “the next wave of nuclear proliferation,” as evidence that direct intervention by the government is needed.

“We can’t rely on somebody else making shell casings for our nuclear arsenal,” Luria said. “We have to get it right.”

'Fast Money' traders react to the Trump admin possibly taking a stake in Intel

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Applied Materials shares sink 10% on light forecast amid macroeconomic uncertainties

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Applied Materials shares sink 10% on light forecast amid macroeconomic uncertainties

The Applied Materials logo on Dec. 17, 2024.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Applied Materials shares sank more than 10% in extended trading Thursday as the semiconductor equipment company provided outlook for the current quarter that came in light.

Here’s how Applied Materials did in its third-quarter earnings results versus LSEG consensus estimates:

  • EPS: $2.48, adjusted, versus $2.36 estimated.
  • Revenue: $7.3 billion vs $7.22 billion estimated.

Applied Materials said it expects $2.11 per share in adjusted earnings in the current quarter, lower than LSEG estimates of $2.39 per share. The company said to expect $6.7 billion in revenue, versus $7.34 billion estimated.

CEO Gary Dickerson said that the current macroeconomic and policy environment is “creating increased uncertainty and lower visibility.” He said the company’s China business is particularly effected by the uncertainty.

The Trump administration’s tariffs could double the price of imported chips unless companies buying them commit to building in the U.S. Applied Materials makes tools for chip foundries to physically make chips, much of which currently happens in Asia.

Applied Materials said that it has a large backlog of pending export license applications with the U.S. government, but that it’s assuming none of them will be issued in the next quarter.

“We are expecting a decline in revenue in the fourth quarter driven by both digestion of capacity in China and non-linear demand from leading-edge customers given market concentration and fab timing,” the company’s finance chief said in a statement. He added that it expected lower China business to continue for several more quarters.

Applied Materials reported $1.78 billion in net income, or $2.22 per diluted share in the quarter, versus $1.71 billion or $2.05 in the year-ago period.

The company’s most important division, semiconductor systems, reported $5.43 billion in sales, topping estimates, and representing a 10% rise from last year.

Applied Materials was praised by President Donald Trump earlier this month after it was included in an Apple program to make more chips in the U.S.

Apple said it would partner with the chipmaker to produce more manufacturing equipment in Austin, Texas.

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Intel stock climbs 7% on report Trump administration is considering stake in chipmaker

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Intel stock climbs 7% on report Trump administration is considering stake in chipmaker

Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., departs following a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.

Alex Wroblewski | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Intel shares rose 7% on Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is in talks with the chipmaker to have the U.S. government take a stake in the struggling company.

Intel is the only U.S. company with the capability to manufacture the fastest chips on U.S. shores, although rivals including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung also have U.S. factories. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high technology to be manufactured in the U.S.

The government’s stake would help fund factories that Intel is currently building in Ohio, according to the report.

Earlier this week, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan visited Trump in the White House, a meeting that took place after the president had called for Tan’s resignation based on allegations he has ties to China.

Intel said at the time that Tan is “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests.” An Intel representative declined to comment about reports that the government is considering taking a stake in the company.

“We look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumors or speculation,” the spokesperson said.

Tan took over Intel earlier this year after the chipmaker failed to gain significant share in artificial intelligence chips, while it was spending heavily to build its foundry business, which manufactures chips for other companies.

Intel’s foundry business has yet to secure a major customer, which would be a critical step in moving towards expansion and giving other potential customers the confidence to turn to Intel for manufacturing.

In July, Tan said that Intel was canceling plans for manufacturing sites in Germany and Poland and would slow down development in Ohio, adding that spending at the chipmaker would be closely scrutinized.

Under Trump, the U.S. government has increasingly moved to put itself at the center of deals in major industries. Last week, it said it would take 15% of certain Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chip sales to China. The Pentagon bought a $400 million equity stake in rare-earth miner MP Materials. It also took a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as part of a deal to allow Nippon Steel to buy the U.S. industrial giant.

Intel shares are now up 19% this year after losing 60% of their value in 2024, the worst year on record for the chipmaker.

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Trump's decision to allow chip sales to China is 'reverse tariff' and we could see more such deals

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