Arm moves into chips as boss says firm will deliver silicon
Arm boss Rene Haas said the company will begin delivering its own chips as it unveiled its first in-house processor, marking a major shift for the UK tech firm.
“With today’s announcement, we’re expanding the Arm compute platform to include delivery of production silicon with our Arm AGI CPU,” Haas said.
The Cambridge-based company revealed its new data centre processor, known as the AGI CPU, at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday.
It is the first time Arm has produced its own silicon, moving beyond its long-standing model of licensing designs to chipmakers.
Haas said the move would give partners “more choice as they build AI infrastructure at scale”, positioning Arm more directly within the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence market.
Meta signs on as Arm enters crowded race
The shift places Arm in more direct competition with some of its own customers, as well as established chipmakers including Intel and AMD.
Meta is among the first companies to adopt the new processor, as it ramps up spending on AI data centres. The social media giant is investing heavily in infrastructure and has already secured chips from Nvidia and AMD as part of its broader push into AI.
Industry analysts said even a small share of that spending could represent a significant revenue opportunity for Arm, given the scale of capital being deployed by large technology firms.
The launch also reflects a wider shift in the AI market. While graphics processing units (GPUs) have dominated recent demand, CPUs are increasingly seen as critical for handling general-purpose computing tasks and coordinating complex AI workloads, particularly as “agentic” systems become more common.
Arm said its AGI CPU has been designed with those demands in mind, focusing on performance and energy efficiency in power-constrained data centres. The chip is being manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company using advanced 3-nanometre technology and is expected to enter production later this year.
More than 50 partners, including companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and Samsung, have signalled support for the platform, according to Arm.
The company has also expanded its chip development efforts, building new facilities in Austin, Texas, and growing its engineering team as it moves further into hardware.
Arm has built its business over decades by licensing chip designs used in billions of devices worldwide, from smartphones to servers. Moving into producing its own processors represents a significant strategic change.
Analysts said the move could open up new revenue streams as demand for AI infrastructure grows, though it may also affect margins compared with its licensing-heavy model.
Arm said the new processor is designed to improve performance while reducing energy consumption — a key constraint as companies scale up AI systems globally.