Giants want a piece of Arm but will debut on Nasdaq lack bite?

APROFIT of $20 billion in seven years is not bad going. It's enough cash to build and fit out one of Taiwan's most advanced microchip manufacturing plants-or fund the UK government's long-delayed semiconductor strategy 16 times over.

- James Ashton

Yet SoftBank's two-thirds mark-up on Arm, the chip designer it acquired for $32 billion seven years ago this week and has been trying to sell for the past four years, is far from exceptional when set against the growth seen elsewhere in the industry.

Over the same period, the PHLX Semiconductor Sector index has risen more than fourfold, and Nvidia Arm's one-time suitor thrilling investors with its potential to power the artificial intelligence era - is 30 times more valuable than in 2016.

This initial public offering, the year's largest and the most closely watched in London precisely because it is not happening here, was never required to shoot the lights out. If it merely switched them back on it could be judged a success for Wall Street investment bankers who have been starved of juicy transactions and fees.