Arm China CEO Allen Wu says IPO likely after 2025

[SHANGHAI] British semiconductor and software design company Arm Ltd's embattled China joint venture chief executive officer Allen Wu would like a Hong Kong or Shanghai market debut after 2025, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported last week.

In an interview with the newspaper published late Friday (Feb 25), Wu said the China division had hit its 5-year targets since its founding in 2018, and generated US$700 million in revenues in 2021.

"We are supportive of Arm's IPO (initial public offering)," Wu said, adding that "we hope that Arm would also support ours". In 2020, Arm, which holds a 47.33 per cent stake in its China joint venture (JV), announced that the JV's board voted 7-1 to oust Wu as its CEO due to alleged "conflicts of interest". Wu has refused to step down and maintains control of the company.

In late 2020, Arm and its parent company Japan's Softbank Group announced they had reached an agreement to sell Arm to US-based chipmaker Nvidia.

Those plans fell apart earlier this month due to opposition from numerous goverments.

Arm subsequently announced it plans to go public, which will place pressure on the company to resolve its dispute with its China joint venture.

Wu also told the SCMP that he clashed with Arm's top management over US-sanctions against Chinese smartphone maker Huawei.

In 2019, Washington ordered companies with US-origin technology to cease doing business with Huawei Technologies. Arm initially told its staff to cease relations with Huawei, but later said it would continue to supply the company.

"I had a fight with them," Wu told the SCMP. "They can't turn away my biggest client because they are afraid of risks due to a political situation. Those are my risks, not theirs."

Arm did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comments on Wu's remarks. REUTERS