TAIPEI, Taipei, September 13 —Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has decided to invest up to US$100 million (RM468 million) in the UK-headquartered ARM Holdings Plc, an IC design subsidiary of Japan’s Softbank Group.

In a statement, TSMC said the investment plan was approved in a board meeting held Tuesday, and that the amount invested will depend on how ARM prices its share in the upcoming public initial offering (IPO), reported Central News Agency (CNA).

According to international business news outlets, ARM’s IPO is scheduled for later this week on the US market and is expected to generate almost US$5 billion, with shares set to be priced between US$47 and US$51.

Big tech companies, such as US-based consumer electronics giant Apple Inc. and chip designers Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. have agreed to invest in ARM’s IPO.

TSMC Chairman Mark Liu in a SEMICON forum held in Taipei on September 6 disclosed that the chipmaker was studying the possibility of investing in ARM.

According to Liu, ARM is a critical part of the global semiconductor ecosystem and TSMC hopes the IC designer, which creates the blueprint or chip architecture upon which 99 per cent of the world’s smartphone processors are based, will succeed.

ARM has seen huge demand in its IPO, with Bloomberg reporting orders were already oversubscribed by ten times.

TSMC said the investment in ARM is a strategic decision and is expected to cement the cooperation between the two.

Liu Pei-chen, a researcher at Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER)’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database, said booming artificial intelligence development has boosted demand for edge computing applications, and that ARM’s strength in edge computing technology is expected to support TSMC’s future development in that area.

Liu said ARM has a huge portfolio of semiconductor intellectual property and that TSMC’s acquisition of a stake in the IC designer is expected to strengthen the chipmaker’s ecosystem.

In addition to the ARM deal, TSMC’s board meeting also approved the investment of up to US$432.8 million to acquire a 10 per cent stake in IMS Nanofabrication Global, LLC, from Intel Corp. — Bernama-CNA