UK-based Arm Holdings (ARM) has hired tech giant Amazon’s (AMZN) artificial intelligence (AI) expert to accelerate its plan to develop in-house chips. According to Reuters, Arm has brought on Amazon’s AI chip director Rami Sinno to lead its chip-building efforts. Arm is one of the world’s largest chip designers, with companies such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL) relying on its technology to power their chips.
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At Amazon, Sinno played an integral role in developing its in-house AI chips, Trainium and Inferentia, which are designed to train and run large-scale AI models and applications.
Arm Is Building a Solid AI Team
After years of supplying only the intellectual property (IP) of chip designs, Arm is now aiming to capture a larger share of the chip market by directly producing its own chips. To achieve this goal, the company has been recruiting AI executives from peers and rivals.
For example, Arm hired Nicolas Dube from HPE (HPE), who has extensive experience in large-scale systems design. It also recruited chip engineer Steve Halter, who previously worked at Intel (INTC) and Qualcomm (QCOM).
Arm’s push into in-house chips marks a bold strategic step but comes with risks. It could strain relationships with long-standing customers such as Nvidia, Apple, and Qualcomm. This could potentially weaken its royalty-earning business model. Moreover, Arm could face higher research and development costs associated with manufacturing these AI chips, which could hurt its margins and capital efficiency.
Arm Is Seeking to Compete in the AI Chip Race
In July, CEO Rene Haas revealed plans to invest a portion of its profits into building its own chips and related components. Arm is also seeking to build chiplets, which are smaller, function-specific versions of a chip that can be bundled together into complete systems.
Japan’s investment conglomerate SoftBank Group (SFTBY) holds a majority stake in Arm Holdings. The company earns revenue through chip design licensing and royalties on its IP. Arm’s technology powers almost every smartphone in the world. Additionally, Arm’s server chips have gained traction in the data center market, effectively competing with industry giants AMD (AMD) and Intel.
If Arm can expand into in-house chipmaking without losing customer trust, it could open new growth opportunities, though execution risks remain high.
Is ARM a Good Stock to Buy?
Analysts remain highly optimistic about Arm Holdings’ long-term stock outlook. On TipRanks, ARM stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 18 Buys and six Hold ratings. The average Arm Holdings price target of $170.81 implies 21.1% upside potential from current levels. Year-to-date, ARM stock has gained 14.4%.
