Arm Holdings vs BYD: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Arm Holdings and BYD side by side

1. 1985Arm Holdings

   ARM1 Processor First Silicon

   The first ARM processor, ARM1, reached silicon at Acorn Computers, designed by Sophie Wilson, who wrote the instruction set, and Steve Furber, who led the hardware.

2. 1990Arm Holdings

   Arm Founded as an Acorn, Apple and VLSI Joint Venture

   The company was incorporated in November 1990 as Widelogic Limited and renamed Advanced RISC Machines Limited on December 3, 1990, structured as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple Computer and VLSI Technology.

3. 1993Arm Holdings

   Apple Newton Ships with ARM610 and Arm Turns Profitable

   Apple launched the Newton MessagePad, powered by an ARM610 processor, the first significant consumer product built on an ARM-based chip.

4. 1995BYD

   BYD founded in Shenzhen

   Wang Chuanfu and his cousin Lu Xiangyang start BYD in Shenzhen with about 20 employees, making rechargeable batteries for mobile phones.

5. 1998Arm Holdings

   Dual Listing on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq

   Arm floated on April 17, 1998, trading in London and New York on the same day after being priced at 575p a share by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Cazenove. The company was renamed ARM Holdings at the listing and joined the FTSE 100.

6. 2000BYD

   Becomes a leading NiCd battery maker

   BYD becomes one of the world's largest makers of nickel-cadmium batteries, supplying major electronics brands.

7. 2001Arm Holdings

   Warren East Becomes Chief Executive

   Warren East was appointed chief executive in October 2001, succeeding Robin Saxby. Over the following twelve years Arm established the Cortex CPU and Mali GPU families and became the standard architecture for smartphones.

8. 2002BYD

   Hong Kong listing

   BYD lists its H shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under stock code 1211.

9. 2003BYD

   Buys Qinchuan and enters the car business

   BYD acquires a controlling stake in Xi'an Qinchuan Automobile for about $37.4 million (CN¥269 million), gaining a car production licence and factory.

10. 2004Arm Holdings

    Artisan Components Acquired for $913 Million

    Arm bought Artisan Components, a designer of physical IP such as standard cell libraries, memory compilers and input and output cells, extending Arm from processor designs into the foundry-specific building blocks needed to fabricate a chip.

11. 2007Arm Holdings

    iPhone Launch Accelerates Smartphone Royalty Growth

    Apple launched the original iPhone with a Samsung-manufactured application processor built on an ARM11 core.

12. 2008BYD

    Berkshire Hathaway takes about 10%

    Berkshire Hathaway's MidAmerican Energy invests $232 million for about 10% of BYD, giving the company international credibility.

13. 2008BYD

    Launches the F3DM plug-in hybrid

    BYD launches the F3DM, the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid car, two years before the Chevrolet Volt.

14. 2010BYD

    Denza joint venture with Daimler

    BYD and Daimler set up Denza as a 50:50 joint venture to build premium electric cars in China.

15. 2011BYD

    Launches the e6 and lists in Shenzhen

    BYD launches the e6 electric crossover, first used as a taxi in Shenzhen, and lists A shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (002594).

16. 2013Arm Holdings

    Simon Segars Succeeds Warren East as CEO

    Arm announced in March 2013 that Warren East would retire and that president Simon Segars, who joined Arm in 1991 as one of its early engineers, would become chief executive from July 1, 2013.

17. 2016Arm Holdings

    SoftBank Acquires Arm for ~$32.1 billion (24.3 Billion Pounds)

    SoftBank Group agreed on July 18, 2016 to acquire Arm Holdings for 24.3 billion pounds, about $31.4 billion in cash, and completed the deal on September 5, 2016.

18. 2020Arm Holdings

    Nvidia Agrees to Buy Arm for $40 Billion

    Nvidia announced an agreement to acquire Arm from SoftBank for about $40 billion in cash and stock.

19. 2020BYD

    Launches the Blade Battery

    BYD introduces the Blade Battery, an LFP cell-to-pack design that passes the nail penetration test without fire.

20. 2022Arm Holdings

    Nvidia Deal Collapses and Rene Haas Becomes CEO

    Nvidia and SoftBank terminated the acquisition in February 2022 after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued to block it, the UK Competition and Markets Authority recommended against it and EU regulators opened a Phase II review.

21. 2022BYD

    Ends combustion-only car production

    In March 2022 BYD stops making combustion-only passenger cars and focuses entirely on battery EVs and plug-in hybrids.

22. 2023Arm Holdings

    Nasdaq IPO Prices at $51 and Raises $4.87 Billion

    Arm listed on Nasdaq on September 14, 2023 under the ticker ARM, pricing American depositary shares at $51 and raising about $4.87 billion at a valuation of roughly $54.5 billion. It was the largest U.S.

23. 2023BYD

    Passes Tesla in quarterly BEV sales

    BYD sells 3.02 million new energy vehicles in 2023, and its 526,409 battery EVs in the fourth quarter top Tesla's 484,507 for the first time in a quarter.

24. 2024Arm Holdings

    Fiscal 2024 Revenue Reaches $3.23 Billion

    Arm reported fiscal 2024 revenue of $3,233 million, up 21%, made up of $1,802 million of royalty revenue and $1,431 million of license and other revenue, with net income of $306 million.

25. 2024BYD

    Takes full ownership of Denza

    Mercedes-Benz sells its last 10% of Denza in July 2024, leaving BYD as the sole shareholder of its premium brand.

26. 2025Arm Holdings

    Artisan Foundation IP Business Sold to Cadence

    Arm completed the sale of its Artisan foundation IP business, the standard cell libraries, memory compilers and general-purpose input and output blocks it had built up since the 2004 Artisan acquisition, to Cadence Design Systems on August 26, 2025 under an ag…

27. 2025Arm Holdings

    Lumex Client Platform Launched for On-Device AI

    In September 2025 Arm launched Lumex, its compute subsystem platform for flagship smartphones and next-generation PCs, pairing C1 CPUs and G1 GPUs with Scalable Matrix Extension version 2 for on-device AI.

28. 2025Arm Holdings

    Fiscal 2025 Revenue Passes $4 Billion

    Arm reported fiscal 2025 revenue of $4,007 million, up 24%, with royalty revenue of $2,168 million and license and other revenue of $1,839 million, and net income of $792 million.

29. 2025BYD

    Berkshire Hathaway exits

    Berkshire Hathaway confirms in September 2025 that it has sold its entire BYD stake, ending a 17-year investment.

30. 2025BYD

    Becomes the world's top battery EV seller

    BYD sells 2.26 million battery EVs in 2025 against Tesla's 1.64 million, and 4.6 million new energy vehicles in total.

31. 2026Arm Holdings

    Arm Launches the AGI CPU, Its First Production Silicon

    At the Arm Everywhere event in San Francisco on March 24, 2026, Arm introduced the Arm AGI CPU, the first chip it designed and sells as finished silicon rather than licensable IP.

32. 2026Arm Holdings

    Fiscal 2026 Revenue Reaches $4.92 Billion

    Arm reported fiscal 2026 revenue of $4,920 million, up 23% and a third consecutive year of growth above 20% since the IPO, with royalty revenue of $2,613 million, license and other revenue of $2,307 million and net income of $904 million.

33. 2026BYD

    Unveils Blade Battery 2.0 and FLASH charging

    On March 5, 2026 BYD unveils the second-generation Blade Battery, which charges from 10% to 70% in about five minutes, and plans 20,000 FLASH charging stations in China by the end of 2026.

34. 2026BYD

    Overseas revenue passes China

    In the first half of 2026 BYD's overseas revenue of ~$25.2 billion (CN¥181.3 billion) exceeds revenue from China for the first time, even as group revenue falls 7.1% to ~$47.9 billion (CN¥344.8 billion).

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