Arm CEO says $15B AI chip revenue goal may come early

Arm CEO Says $15 Billion AI Chip Revenue Goal Coming Ahead of Schedule

Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas said the company may reach its $15 billion AI chip revenue target earlier than its previously stated end-of-decade timeline, citing stronger-than-projected demand from the AI boom.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, Haas said he is “very confident” the company will hit the milestone and that there are indications it could arrive sooner than planned, driven by overwhelming demand from companies racing to build data centers and AI services.bloomberg

Doubling Down on Data Center Chips

The accelerated outlook builds on Arm’s strategic pivot from a smartphone-focused chip designer to a data center computing platform. In March, the company unveiled its first in-house processor — the AGI CPU — designed for AI data centers, with Meta as its lead customer and OpenAI, Cloudflare, SAP, and SK Telecom among early adopters.yahoo

Haas originally projected the AGI CPU would generate roughly $15 billion in annual revenue by 2031, contributing to a total annual revenue target of $25 billion. The company has since doubled its near-term guidance for the new data center chips to $2 billion across fiscal years 2027 and 2028, up from a prior $1 billion forecast. The chip, manufactured by TSMC using its 3-nanometer process, is expected to enter mass production in the second half of 2026.cnbc

China Export Concerns

Haas has also weighed in on U.S. export controls targeting AI chips bound for China, cautioning that restricting CPU exports poses unique challenges. Unlike specialized AI accelerators, CPUs are ubiquitous across computing applications, making it difficult to isolate AI-specific uses. The issue has gained fresh urgency after the U.S. Commerce Department on Sunday moved to close a loophole that had allowed advanced AI chips — including those from Nvidia and AMD — to reach Chinese subsidiaries operating outside China.reuters

The tightened restrictions apply licensing requirements to all entities with parent companies headquartered in China, regardless of where the subsidiary is located. Haas has previously aligned with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in arguing that export controls risk slowing technological progress and ultimately harming consumers.bloomberg

Arm, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group, reported data center revenue growth of more than 100% year-over-year earlier this year, with Haas predicting the segment will become the company’s largest business within a few years.youtube