Arm launches Physical AI division to power next-gen robotics and autonomous vehicles
Chipmakers chasing the robotics opportunity, are jostling to supply the standard architectures for humanoids, industrial arms and autonomous vehicles.
Arm Holdings, best known for low‑power smartphone cores, is reorganising itself around the robots of tomorrow. The British chip designer has carved out a new Physical AI division to sell semiconductors and software for machines that move through the world, from factory bots to autonomous cars, as it chases one of the most tantalising growth markets in technology.
The unit will sit alongside two existing lines — Cloud and AI, and Edge — and will fold in Arm’s automotive business, underscoring how closely carmakers’ needs now resemble those of robot-builders.
Executives disclosed the plan on the sidelines of CES in Las Vegas, where robotics and so‑called ‘physical AI’ systems are hogging the limelight. Drew Henry, who will lead the new division, argues that smarter machines could “fundamentally enhance labour” and eventually move the dial on global GDP, Reuters reports.
Arm plans to add specialised robotics staff, hoping that tighter alignment of automotive and robotics — both obsessed with safety, reliability and power budgets — will give its designs an edge over rivals.
The move reflects a broader turn in artificial intelligence from disembodied chatbots to systems that sense, decide and act in the physical world. At CES, Nvidia and others are promoting “physical AI” stacks and robot foundation models, betting that the next wave of demand for compute will come from warehouses, roads and homes rather than just cloud data centres.
As chipmakers chase this shift, they are jostling to supply the standard architectures for humanoids, industrial arms and autonomous vehicles, much as Arm’s blueprints already underpin most of the world’s smartphones.
For New York listed Arm, robots promise a way to diversify beyond handsets while preserving its reputation for frugal, deterministic compute. Chief executive Rene Haas has already pushed through price rises and floated plans to design more complete chips, and the new division gives investors a cleaner story about long-term growth in automotive and automation.
Yet competition will be fierce: Nvidia, Qualcomm and a swarm of startups also covet the sockets inside future robot fleets, where software ecosystems and safety certification may matter as much as clever silicon.