SoftBank Group became the parent of Arm after acquiring the semiconductor designer in 2016.
SoftBank agreed to acquire Arm Holdings in 2016 for approximately £24 billion. Arm designs processor architectures and intellectual-property cores that are licensed to chip companies; it generally does not manufacture the finished processors itself.
SoftBank was founded in Japan in 1981 by Masayoshi Son and developed from a software-distribution business into a technology investment group. Arm later returned to public markets in 2023 through an initial public offering on Nasdaq, while SoftBank retained majority ownership. The ownership history is often confused because Arm is a major independent brand even though SoftBank controls it.