
It is hard to overstate the importance of chip design company Arm’s stock market debut for other tech companies hoping to list their shares. After a dearth of public offerings since the start of 2022, the IPO, which could come as soon as September, will be a barometer of the market’s revived interest in tech this year.
Yet it is also hard to overstate the difficulty that SoftBank, Arm’s owner, faces in getting the premium valuation it needs to help repair its own, battered image as a tech investor. It is taking Arm public at a time when the chip company’s core market has run out of growth, its business model is in transition and it is ensnared in a legal battle with one of its biggest customers.