ARM has signed Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook, as its first customer for a chip product as it transitions from being only a licensor of chip IP, according to the Financial Times.

据英国《金融时报》，ARM已与Meta（Facebook前身）签约，成为其芯片产品的第一个客户。不再是单纯的芯片IP许可方了。

The chip, a server CPU for data centers, will be customizable for multiple customers with Meta as the first, the report said. The chip is due to be announced later this year, it added. Since its formation in 1990 ARM has focussed on licensing circuits designs and its architecture to chip companies in return for royalties on subsequent chip sales.

报道称，该芯片是用于数据中心的服务器CPU，将为多个客户提供定制，Meta是第一个客户。报道补充说，该芯片将于今年晚些时候发布。自1990年成立以来，ARM一直专注于向芯片公司授权电路、设计及其架构，以换取后续芯片销售的特许权使用费。

A change in business model to include the provision of fully packaged processors would see ARM compete with its customers for the first time and is likely to be significant market disruptor.

商业模式的改变包括提供完全封装的处理器将使ARM首次与其客户竞争，并可能成为重要的市场颠覆者。

Susan Li, Meta’s CFO, said in an earnings call last month that her company was extending its custom silicon efforts to AI training workloads. This is an activity for which Meta will have in the past typically purchased thousands of Nvidia chips such as Hopper and Blackwell for use in its datacenters; chips which cost more than US$10,000 each.

Meta首席财务官Susan Li，在上个月的财报电话会议上表示，公司正在将其定制芯片工作扩展到AI训练工作负载。Meta过去通常会为此购买数千枚Nvidia芯片（如Hopper和Blackwell）用于其数据中心;每个芯片的价格超过 10,000 美元。

No details of the ARM processor were reported so it is unclear the degree to which it may be seen as competition by Nvidia.

没有报道ARM 处理器的细节，因此目前尚不清楚它在多大程度上可能被视为 Nvidia 的竞争对手。

The fact that the initial design may be exclusive to Meta lets ARM occupy ground somewhere between AI licensor, design services company and chip product supplier. Importantly, it would likely allow ARM to capture much more of the chip value than licensing an IP core to a chip company. The latter activity is usually levied as a royalty of a few percent of the value of each chip sold. The chip will be manufactured for ARM by a foundry, such as TSMC, the report said.

初始设计可能是Meta独有的事实使ARM在AI许可方、设计服务公司和芯片产品供应商之间占据了一席之地。重要的是，与将IP内核许可给芯片公司相比，它可能会让ARM获得更多的芯片价值。后一项活动通常作为每售出芯片价值的百分之几的特许权使用费征收。报道称，该芯片将由台积电等代工厂为ARM制造。

There have been rumors over the last couple of years that ARM has been considering changing its business model to include being a chip product vendor. The possibility was mentioned as Nvidia sought to buy ARM from its parent SoftBank Group, a deal that eventually collapsed in February 2022. The fact that high-performance processor components are now often designed around multiple chiplets, potentially from multiple sources, has also made the environment for business models more complex.

过去几年有传言称，ARM一直在考虑改变其商业模式，包括成为芯片产品供应商。当英伟达寻求从其母公司软银集团收购ARM时，提到了这种可能性，这笔交易最终于2022年2月破裂。事实上，高性能处理器组件现在通常围绕多个chiplets（可能来自多个来源）进行设计，这也使业务模型的环境变得更加复杂。

A Nikkei report in May 2024 indicated that a prototype AI processor chip product would be completed in spring 2025 and be on sale in fall 2025. That prediction is now supported by the FT report.

日经新闻2024年5月的一份报告指出，原型AI处理器芯片产品将于2025年春季完成，并于2025年秋季上市销售。这一预测现在得到了英国《金融时报》报告的支持。

Such a move by ARM is not without risks. By competing with its IP licensees ARM could prompt an exodus to RISC-V and other processor architectures. On the other hand, legacy design wins are usually resilient and it would likely take years, even a decade or more, for royalties on ARM chips to disappear.

ARM的这一举动并非没有风险。通过与IP被许可方竞争，ARM可能会促使人们转向RISC-V和其他处理器架构。另一方面，传统设计中标通常具有弹性，ARM 芯片的专利费可能需要数年甚至十年或更长时间才能消失。

Although listed on NASDAQ, ARM is majority-owned by SoftBank Group, which has reportedly been pushing CEO Rene Haas to increase profits by using its key position in the semiconductor industry. A mixture of increased royalty rates imposed by ARM and the prospect of ARM as a competitor may have been behind a legal battle currently being fought between ARM and a leading customer Qualcomm Inc.

尽管在纳斯达克上市，但ARM的多数股权由软银集团持有，据报道，软银集团一直在推动首席执行官Rene Haas利用其在半导体行业的关键地位来增加利润。ARM征收的专利费增加以及ARM作为竞争对手的前景可能是ARM与主要客户Qualcomm之间目前正在进行的法律斗争的幕后推手。

One startup company that ARM would certainly be competing with is Ampere, which has designed server processors based on the ARM architecture. However, SoftBank is reportedly in talks over a potential acquisition of Ampere at a valuation of about US$6.5 billion.

ARM肯定会与之竞争的一家初创公司是Ampere，该公司设计了基于ARM架构的服务器处理器。然而，据报道，软银正在就可能以约65亿美元的估值收购Ampere进行谈判。

原文：https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/arm-signs-meta-as-first-chip-product-customer-says-report