Is Arm Holdings Still a Hidden Winner of the AI Chip Race?

Arm Holdings, which licenses CPU designs rather than manufacturing chips, is positioned as a crucial but underappreciated player in the AI infrastructure boom. The company collects royalties on every unit shipped and is expanding beyond smartphones into data centers, where major tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia build Arm-based CPUs. With recent revenue growth of 23-24% and higher royalty rates from newer architectures, Arm has outperformed Nvidia over the past three years, though its valuation at 55x sales remains richly priced.