Arm is reportedly developing its own in-house chip

Chip designer Arm plans to unveil its own processor this year with Meta as the launch customer, The Financial Times reported. The chip would be a CPU designed for servers in data centers and would have the potential to be customized for clients. Manufacturing would be outsourced to a contract fab plant like TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) and the first in-house chip could be revealed as early as this summer, according to the FT's sources. 

Last month, Arm parent Softbank announced the Stargate project, a partnership with OpenAI to build up to $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure. Arm, along with Microsoft and NVIDIA, is a key technology partner for the project. Arm's chip could now play a role in that project, and also in Jony Ive's mysterious AI-powered personal device, reportedly being developed in collaboration with OpenAI's Sam Altman, according to the report. 

Arm's designs power nearly every smartphone and mobile device in the world, along with Apple Mac and Qualcomm-powered Windows PCs. They generally use less power for the same level of compute as Intel and AMD chips, so they've become desirable for data farms that power AI applications as well. 

The move would put Arm in direct competition with many of its own customers like NVIDIA, which manufacturers its own Arm-based server CPUs. To date, Arm has never made its own chips — instead, it licenses its technology and patents to major companies like Apple. Those companies then customize the designs for their own needs and use a contract manufacturer like TSMC or Samsung to build the chips. 

UK-based Arm is currently embroiled in a testy legal battle with Qualcomm over licensing terms. Meanwhile, parent SoftBank is reportedly close to purchasing Ampere, a server chip designer. That deal will be "central to Arm's own chipmaking project," according to FT's inside sources. 

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