Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) -), the world's biggest contract chipmaker, said Wednesday that it would decide this week whether to invest in the upcoming Arm IPO.
Chairman Mark Liu told reporters on the sidelines of the Semicon Taiwan summit, an industry event, that the company was still weighing whether to join a host of major chipmakers tabbed as strategic investors in the $5 billion listing, which is expected to debut on the Nasdaq on Sept. 14.
Apple (AAPL) -), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) -), Nvidia (NVDA) -), Intel (INTC) -) and Samsung have all reportedly agreed to participate in the listing.
"Arm is an important element of our ecosystem, our technology and our customers' ecosystem," Liu said. "We want it to be successful, we want it to be healthy. That's the bottom line."
Arm's parent, Japan-based SoftBank, said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday that it would set the IPO price for Arm, at least during initial talks with major investors, at between $47 and $51 a share. That level would translate to an overall market value of $50 billion to $54 billion.
The IPO will likely sell 95.5 million shares and raise around $4.87 billion, if the current price range holds, with SoftBank holding around 90.6% of Arm's ordinary shares upon completion.
SoftBank, which last year failed to complete a $40 billion sale of the U.K-based chipmaker to Nvidia (NVDA) -) amid pushback from competition authorities in the U.S. and Europe, spurned the British government in March by opting to pursue a U.S.-only listing.
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