According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), NVIDIA sold all of its shares in Arm, a British semiconductor silicon intellectual property company, by the end of the third quarter. This sale involved approximately 110 million shares, with a total market value of nearly $1.56 million. This action, in contrast to previous commitments, provides a negative answer to concerns about a potential breakdown in the relationship between the two tech giants.
The divestment of shareholdings does not signify a technical breakdown between the two parties.
This financial "clearance" does not affect the deep integration of NVIDIA and Arm in underlying technologies.
In fact, NVIDIA still holds a 20-year architecture licensing agreement with Arm. NVIDIA is currently aggressively targeting the data center and AI server markets (even deploying them independently for the first time to challenge Intel and AMD's territory).Grace CPUIt is a key product built on the Arm architecture.
After NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's acquisition of Arm fell through in 2022, he publicly stated, "NVIDIA will continue to support Arm as a proud licensee for decades to come." Judging from the current product roadmap, NVIDIA's ambitions in the CPU field still require the advantages of Arm architecture's low power consumption and high core count to support them.
From a $400 billion mega-merger to a strategic investor
Looking back at the relationship between the two companies, NVIDIA announced in 2020 its $400 billion acquisition of Arm from SoftBank. If the deal had gone through, it would have been the second largest merger and acquisition in semiconductor history after Dell's acquisition of EMC. However, facing antitrust obstruction from regulatory authorities in the US, UK, and other countries, as well as strong opposition from major tech giants, the deal ultimately fell through in 2022.
After the failed acquisition, NVIDIA opted for a different approach, participating as a "strategic investor." When Arm returned to Nasdaq in 2023, NVIDIA, along with Apple, Google, Samsung, TSMC, and other tech companies, collectively subscribed to $7.35 million worth of Arm shares to solidify their cooperative relationship.
Is Arm's development of its own chips a potential concern?
However, the subtle change in the relationship between the two sides may also be related to Arm's recent strategic shift.
Arm, currently valued at approximately $135 billion, has a business empire encompassing almost all tech giants, including Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. However, Arm CEO Rene Haas publicly confirmed in July 2025 that Arm...They are considering developing their own chips..
This decision has caused quite a stir in the industry. Once Arm transforms from a simple "IP licensor (selling design schematics)" into a "chip supplier (selling physical chips)," it will inevitably face direct competition with its existing heavyweight customers (including NVIDIA, Qualcomm, MediaTek, etc.), which may be one of the reasons why NVIDIA is reassessing the necessity of holding shares.
NVIDIA's other investment strategies
Aside from divesting its stake in Arm, NVIDIA's investment portfolio remains vast and precisely targeted. According to documents, as of the end of 2025, NVIDIA still holds stakes in cloud computing provider CoreWeave, processor manufacturer Intel, AI infrastructure company Nebius, telecommunications giant Nokia (which just announced a $1 billion investment last October), and EDA software provider...Synopsys A significant stake in Synopsys.
Analysis of viewpoints
For NVIDIA, now with a market capitalization exceeding one trillion and absolute dominance in the AI chip market, the $1.56 million worth of Arm shares is merely a drop in the ocean. The initial investment was intended to "support" Arm's IPO and demonstrate an alliance. Now that this initial phase has been accomplished, and with Arm beginning to express its ambition to "make its own chips," NVIDIA's decision to cash out its investment at this time, returning both parties to a purely "IP licensing and customer" business relationship, can avoid potential future conflicts of interest.
As long as the Grace CPU continues to play a vital role in NVIDIA's AI server roadmap, the technological connection between the two companies will remain unbroken. However, in terms of finance and equity, NVIDIA has decided to move its funds to invest in infrastructure partners like CoreWeave, which directly drive its AI computing ecosystem.
