TECH

Chip technology company ARM reduces licensing fees for startups

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (Reuters) - ARM, a British company whose chip technologies equip most of the smartphones in use in the world, on Wednesday announced a reduction in licensing fees it charges from startups and offering free options to a business incubator. semiconductor companies that are at an early stage.
ARM, controlled by Softbank Group, licenses its intellectual property to companies such as Qualcomm, Apple and Samsung, which in turn use it in chips for smartphones and other devices. ARM charges a number of licensing fees for the use of its technology, including some that must be paid during several years of development before the company sees its first physical chip in operation.
These costs are more difficult for smaller companies to absorb, so last year, ARM opened up about three quarters of its chip technology portfolio for a new "flexible access" program that postponed the payment of many of these fees until their customers had a chip in hand that they could start selling.
ARM also faces competition from RISC-V, an open source chip technology with less licensing costs.
On Wednesday, ARM expanded the strategy, saying it will eliminate its annual access fees for startups with less than $5 million in funding.
An ARM spokesman said the program will incur some costs for ARM, but the company sees this as a long-term investment to ensure that smaller chip companies can become familiar with its technology.
ARM also joined this Wednesday with Silicon Catalyst, a California company that provides support for small chip companies, providing some of its products free of charge to companies in the company's portfolio.
Silicon Catalyst convinced many of the high-cost software and intellectual property providers to design chips to donate to their companies and to fund millions of dollars in development costs before physical chips are produced.
Pete Rodriguez, chief executive of Silicon Catalyst, told Reuters that having free access to some of ARM's intellectual properties will help companies in its portfolio survive long enough to reach the point of making physical chips, garner additional rounds of financing and eventually start paying for ARM's technology. 

Stephen Nellis/mundophone