Intel shares fell by over 3% in Monday's trading session following a Reuters report which suggested that Nvidia and AMD are developing PC chips using Arm architecture. Following this news, Arm's stock increased by more than 6%, while Nvidia's stock rose close to 4% in late-day trading on Monday.
At present, Intel dominates the PC chip market, with AMD trailing behind. Over half of Intel's revenue from the quarter ending in June was from PC chip sales.
Intel's chips utilize the x86 instruction set. On the other hand, chips with Arm-based instruction sets, typically found in smartphones, tend to be more power-efficient, making them ideal for devices that rely on batteries.
In a recent move, Apple switched from Intel chips to its own Arm-based processors for its laptops and PCs. This shift led to a surge in sales and enhanced battery life for its devices.
Reuters has reported that Nvidia might launch an Arm-based PC chip by 2025. AMD is also reportedly designing an Arm chip. These chips are expected to be compatible with Microsoft Windows PCs.
Transitioning software from the x86 architecture to be Arm-compatible can pose challenges, but Windows is already capable of operating on an Arm chip.
Qualcomm has been developing its Arm-based PC chips for a while, but they haven't yet made a significant impact in terms of sales. The company has scheduled a product launch event later this week.
Last month, Arm held its IPO, during which it highlighted its long-standing contracts with major chip manufacturers to incorporate its technology.
Neither Arm nor Nvidia provided comments on the matter. Requests for comments from Intel and AMD went unanswered at the time.