Arm Chips May Get Their Own Virtual RAN Boost

Arm, a British chip design company, is working with a startup founded by a former Qualcomm executive to develop chip technology for virtual radio access networks (RAN). Historically, Arm has licensed its chip blueprints primarily for smartphones, but the company has been expanding into data centers, vehicles, robotics, and AI. In mobile networks specifically, Arm has had less obvious success compared to competitors, though its cores are featured in 5G products from vendors like Nokia. This development potentially provides Arm a competitive opportunity in virtual RAN, an area where it has previously struggled to establish a strong presence.