SoftBank Group hopes to become de facto chip for IoT world
SoftBank Group’s new subsidiary, ARM Holdings, is applying its ecosystem business model to the internet of things (IoT). ARM architecture is used in semiconductors that are part of 90% of all smartphones, and SoftBank aims to leverage ARM’s specialised products to target the chip market. SoftBank acquired ARM for $31bn in September as part of its push to become involved in the internet of things and to establish its technology as the de facto standard for the IoT.

CAMBRIDGE, U.K./PALO ALTO, U.S. -- ARM Holdings, the U.K.-based chip designer that is now part of Japanese telecom giant SoftBank Group, has begun to apply its ecosystem business model to the "internet of things."

Semiconductors based on the ARM architecture run in over 90% of all smartphones. The British company looks to leverage its technologies for power-miserly chips to play a similarly central role in the dawning era of the internet of things, where everything from cars to farm equipment to appliances is equipped with silicon smarts and can communicate across one giant network.