Apple is a long-standing partner of Arm, the Softbank-owned company that developed the ARM architecture that powers every Apple Silicon chip. Following an agreement to invest in Arm stock after the company announced its plans to go public on the US Nasdaq stock market, Apple and Arm have now signed a long-term agreement for sharing chip technologies.
Apple and Arm strengthen partnership in new deal
As reported by Reuters and AppleInsider, Apple and Arm have signed a new deal for chip technology that “extends beyond 2040.” The news was confirmed through public documents filed on Tuesday.
The agreement wasn’t discussed in the previously submitted IPO filing documents that were made public on August 21, which suggests that the new deal was signed between then and September 5. Neither company has commented on what exactly this agreement covers, but it’s not hard to imagine that Apple wants to ensure that it will keep access to the ARM architecture for much longer.
Apple’s ARM-based chips are in pretty much every one of the company’s devices now, from the Apple Watch to the iPhone and iPad. In 2020, the company announced a major transition for the Mac lineup, which now features the same Apple Silicon chips as other devices instead of relying on Intel processors.
Thanks to ARM technology, Apple has been able to create devices with great performance and incredible energy efficiency. Even so, the partnership between Apple and Arm goes back a long way before the first iPhone. In 1993, Apple was already using ARM chips in its Newton handheld computer.
Last week, customers of Arm (which also include Nvidia, Google, and Samsung) agreed to invest $735 million in the company’s initial public offering.
Read also
- Microsoft aiming to challenge Apple Silicon with custom ARM chips
- Are Apple Silicon Macs so good we’ll need fewer upgrades?
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments