Ampere Computing Inc. has hired a financial adviser to explore a potential sale, Bloomberg reported today.

It’s believed that the chipmaker is seeking a takeover offer from a “larger industry player.” It’s unclear if Ampere hopes to ink a deal with a fellow semiconductor supplier or one of the several tech giants that design their own processors in-house. The discussion about the potential sale reportedly began several months ago.

Santa Clara, California-based Ampere develops server processors based on Arm Holding plc’s ubiquitous instruction set architecture. An instruction set defines the low-level computing operations, such as multiplications and subtractions, that a chip uses to crunch data. Ampere says its silicon can outperform comparable Advanced Micro Devices Inc. chips in some situations. 

Initially, Ampere based its processors on a design from Arm’s Neoverse series of CPU blueprints. Last year, the company debuted a chip series called AmpereOne that features internally designed CPU cores but still uses the Arm instruction set. The most advanced AmpereOne processor features 192 custom cores.

The chip also has other selling points. Ampere has added 128 PCIe lanes that can link up to 32 graphics cards, flash storage systems and other devices to the AmpereOne. A built-in encryption feature shields the memory of the server in which the processor is installed from hacking attempts.

In 2020, Oracle Corp. became the first major cloud provider to introduce instances based on Ampere silicon. Microsoft Corp. and Google LLC followed suit two years later. Last August, the Alphabet Inc. unit became the first cloud provider to adopt the chipmaker’s latest AmpereOne processor series.

It’s unclear what price Ampere might fetch in a potential sale. In 2021, Bloomberg reported that SoftBank Group Corp. was considering to lead a funding round for the chipmaker at a $8.1 billion valuation. Ampere earlier raised more than $300 million from Oracle, Arm and other backers.

Ampere’s reported efforts to find a buyer may receive a boost from Aurora, an upcoming chip that it previewed in July. The processor will include circuits optimized for artificial intelligence workloads. Aurora could potentially put Ampere in a better position to capitalize on the demand for AI hardware, which would increase the company’s revenue potential and thereby make it a more compelling acquisition target. 

Alongside AI-optimized circuits, the upcoming chip will feature HBM memory. That’s a type of high-speed RAM used by graphics cards to hold the data of the neural networks they run. Aurora will also include 512 CPU cores and a new interconnect for moving data between its various circuits. 

Bloomberg’s sources noted that Ampere could still opt to remain independent. There’s reportedly a possibility that the chipmaker will decide to go public, although a stock market listing is not expected in the near future. Ampere confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering in 2022. 

Image: Ampere