Arm IPO is set! The issue price is at the top of the range at $51, with a valuation of $54.5 billion. Trading will commence on Thursday.

On Wednesday, September 13th, Arm set the IPO price at $51 per share, and Arm shares will begin trading on Thursday, September 14th.

Earlier this week, Arm had set the initial price range at $47 to $51 per share, allowing its parent company SoftBank to raise up to $4.9 billion. With the pricing at $51, Arm's valuation at the time of listing will reach as high as $54.5 billion after full dilution. This is lower than the $64 billion valuation given by SoftBank Group, which acquired Arm shares held by its Vision Fund at that valuation.

Earlier on Wednesday, there were reports that Arm's IPO price was set at $52, above the guidance range. With a price of $52 per share, Arm's fully diluted valuation would be $55.5 billion. Subsequently, the media corrected Arm's IPO price to $51.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son acquired Arm for $32 billion in 2016. According to sources close to Son, his idea is that Arm's valuation at the start of trading on the US stock market may not be as important as the listing itself.

Last Friday, media reports cited bankers who participated in Arm's roadshow, stating that Arm's US IPO could bring in more than five times oversubscription, and the UK chip design company expects the AI boom to drive accelerated revenue growth in the future.

Investors have expressed concerns about Arm's recent quarterly performance due to multiple risks, including the slowdown in the smartphone industry. However, Arm's investment advisors stated that "investors are not very sensitive to price," and many passive investors have bought the stock because Arm is included in the Nasdaq Composite Index.

While Arm's smartphone chip market has stagnated this year, the company hopes to gain growth from AI and data center customers, although Arm has only played a peripheral role in building the technology needed for large-scale language models such as ChatGPT and other generative AI.

Arm CEO Rene Haas said in a promotional video:

AI will be everywhere, and all AI will run on Arm's software. Our opportunity is limitless, and with the advent of the AI era, global computing demands are insatiable.

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang also appeared in the video. He said that Nvidia's new Grace Hopper AI "super chip" "would not be possible without Arm's architecture, Arm CPUs' incredible performance, and business model."

Arm executives projected during the roadshow that after a flat performance in 2023, the company's revenue growth will accelerate due to increased royalty payments from smartphone manufacturers. Arm stated that in the next fiscal year ending in March 2025, its revenue could achieve at least 20% growth, exceeding analysts' expectations.