Arm Ltd, the chip technology company owned by SoftBank Group Corp., reported record 2021 revenue on Thursday, with operating income of $2.7 billion, up 35 percent from the previous year. Licensing revenue rose 61% to $1.13 billion, while royalties, which track the number of chips sold using Arm technology, rose 20% to $1.54 billion.

CEO Haas said, "We've never exceeded $1 billion. So I'd say that's a good leading indicator of demand for the product."

Haas said 29.2 billion chips using Arm technology were shipped last year and approached 8 billion in the fourth quarter. Arm's focus on the auto industry three or four years ago is paying off, with revenue more than doubling in the last year, thanks to electrification and increased computing power in cars, he said.

"It would probably be better if there was more supply," Haas said of Arm's automotive business.
Haas, however, declined to talk about the potential value Arm might gain in the stock market.

In September 2020, Nvidia had proposed to buy Arm for as much as $40 billion, and SoftBank eventually bought it for $32 billion.

Haas also reiterated that Arm has settled a public dispute over its China joint venture, which accounts for about 20% of the company's revenue. "One thing I can say is that we had a great last year and that wouldn't have happened without the performance of the Chinese joint venture," Haas said.