Arm makes strategic investment in Raspberry Pi

On November 2, Arm announced the acquisition of a minority stake in Raspberry Pi Ltd. The companies see this as a strategic investment that cements their collaboration over the past 15 years.

With the latest advancements in AI and increasingly efficient processing power, Raspberry Pi’s low-cost single-board computers are now used not only for educational purposes or DIY IoT integrations around the household, but also by an ever growing number of edge computing businesses around the world.

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. 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. This strategic investment is further proof of our continued commitment to the developer community, and to our partnership with Raspberry Pi. - Paul Williamson, SVP and GM, Internet of Things Line of Business, Arm

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

The Register cited by Engadget points out that the pandemic led to a surge in commercial and industrial uses for Raspberry Pi devices in order to cut costs. Apparently, more than 50% of the Raspberry Pi sales now come from the industrial and commercial sectors, which has made it difficult for students and DIY enthusiasts to find products at MSRP. Arm’s direct involvement could help bring prices down for non-commercial users. Another reason behind the strategic investment could be Arm’s intent to stymie the rapid growth of RISC-V-powered single-board computers.

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