Arm takes stake in company behind Raspberry Pi

Arm is making a ‘strategic investment’ in the commercial company behind the Raspberry Pi single board computers. The originally British chip company takes a minority stake in Raspberry Pi Ltd. Further details about the investment are not known.

Arm and Raspberry Pi Ltd announced their agreement on Thursday. The two companies say only that Arm is taking a “minority stake” in the Raspberry Pi company. It is not known what kind of share that is and what amount is involved in the investment. According to Arm, the investment is an extension of the ‘long-term collaboration’ between the two companies; Raspberry Pis have used chips with Arm designs since their introduction. For example, the latest Raspberry Pi 5, released in October, uses a Broadcom BCM2712 SoC with four Arm Cortex A76 cores.

Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton gave in early October hints about a possible IPO in the second half of next year. The company, which is currently almost entirely owned by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is said to be considering listing on the London stock market. Arm went public earlier this year, although owner Softbank is still the largest shareholder in that chip company.