Arm acquires stake in Raspberry Pi in bid to drive IoT development

Arm has acquired a minority stake in Raspberry Pi in a bid to entice Internet of Things (IOT) developers. 

Neither organization is yet to confirm the size or value of the stake. However, the deal builds on an existing partnership between the two firms that dates back to 2008. 

Arm CPUs have featured in all Raspberry Pi products to date, including the recently-launched Raspberry Pi 5.

Paul Williamson, SVP of Arm's IoT business said the aim of the deal is to consolidate its position with the IoT developer community and drive the creation of IoT solutions.

“Arm and Raspberry Pi share a vision to make computing accessible for all, by lowering barriers to innovation so that anyone, anywhere can learn, experience and create new IoT solutions," he said. 

"With the rapid growth of edge and endpoint AI applications, platforms like those from Raspberry Pi, built on Arm, are critical to driving the adoption of high-performance IoT devices globally by enabling developers to innovate faster and more easily."

Raspberry Pi has evolved somewhat from its early days supplying a device for hobbyists and children, and now counts a growing number of industrial and commercial firms among its customers. 

The devices' low power consumption makes them particularly popular in mobile and IoT devices.

“Arm technology has always been central to the platforms we create, and this investment is an important milestone in our longstanding partnership," says Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi.

"Using Arm technology as the foundation of our current and future products offers us access to the compute performance, energy efficiency and extensive software ecosystem we need, as we continue to remove barriers to entry for everyone, from students and enthusiasts, to professional developers deploying commercial IoT systems at scale.”

Raspberry Pi slices are going fast

The deal follows similar minority investments earlier this year from Sony, which manufactures many boards under contract for Raspberry Pi at a facility in Wales, as well as from Lansdowne Partners and Ezrah Charitable Trust.

Last month, the company said it was considering floating on the London Stock Exchange with a £409 million valuation. The move follows a postponed float in 2021 due to poor listing conditions and global chip shortages.

While Raspberry Pi has used Arm chips in its devices from the get go, there has been rumbling speculation that this might change. 

Five years ago, the company signed up to the RISC-V Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to promoting the free and open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture. 

It's becoming highly popular, with a group of chip firms including Qualcomm, Nordic Semiconductor, and Robert Bosch, forming a company to commercialize the architecture earlier this summer and encourage hardware development in the automotive sector, mobile and IoT sectors. 

However, Raspberry Pi's deal with Arm makes a move to RISC-V highly unlikely any time soon, and gives Arm more credibility in its claims that RISC-V doesn't represent a significant threat.