Until its £23.4bn acquisition by Japan’s Softbank in 2016, ARM Holdings was one of the UK’s technology darlings and the sector’s most prominent member of the UK 100 . ARM Holdings shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), also benefitting from a secondary US listing on the Nasdaq. Its name derives from “Acorn RISC Machine” (1982) amended to “Advanced RISC Machine” in 1990 and then ARM Holdings in 1998 when it first sold shares in the stock market via an initial public offering (IPO).

As a semiconductor architect, its processor designs are licensed out for use in all classes of computing devices, however, it is in the devices like mobile phones and tablets where it is considered dominant. Headquartered in Cambridge, UK (otherwise known as Silicon Fen) ARM’s primary revenue stream derives from its design of processors (CPUs), however, it is also involved in the development of software.

Processors designed by ARM and ARM licensees are used as micro-controllers within embedded systems, such as real-time safety like Anti-lock Braking (ABS), biometrics (fingerprint sensors), smart TVs and smart watches. They are also used as general purpose processors in smartphones and tablets, laptops and desktop computers, servers and super computers.

ARM’s claim to fame is that its Mali range of graphics processing units (GPUs) are the third most popular for mobile devices, used in 50% of Android tablets as well as some of Samsung’s smart phones and watches. In fact, many smart devices, including Apple’s iPhones, use chips from a host of providers, which include one or more core designs licensed from ARM on top of those in the principal  ARM licensed processor.

So ARM is likely integral in many of the devices you own, but it is also involved in lots of network-related technology linked to smart devices, such as Bluetooth, WiFi, broadband and routers. Its main competitors in the CPU space are Intel and AMD, while in GPUs it’s the UK’s Imagination Technologies, Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm. ARM Holdings shares are popular with private and institutional investors.