ARM HOLDINGS SHARES RISE 10% IN BIGGEST INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING SINCE LATE 2021

Shares of U.K. chip designer Arm Holdings rose 10% in their stock market debut, in what is the largest initial public offering of shares in nearly two years.

The shares opened at $56.10 on the Nasdaq Thursday after having been priced at $51. The offering price gave Arm a market value of $54.5 billion.

Most consumers use at least one product that contains Arm’s chips, though many people may not be familiar with the company itself. Its chip design is used in virtually all smartphones, the majority of tablets and digital TVs. More recently, Arm has expanded into artificial intelligence, smart devices, cloud computing, the metaverse and autonomous driving.

Arm’s offering is an important development for the IPO market, which has seen relatively few companies go public the past two years. It’s also a key moment for the Japanese technology investor Softbank, which acquired Arm in 2016, as well as investments banks such as Goldman Sachs that recently have taken in far less revenue from underwriting and advisory fees.

Softbank will retain a nearly 90% stake in the Arm. It’s the biggest IPO since the electric truck maker Rivian debuted in November 2021 with a market value of more than $66 billion.