You can watch David Faber's interview with Arm CEO Rene Haas and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son on .
Arm's China subsidiary is "doing well" with strong potential in data center and automotive applications, despite the geopolitical tumult of the past few years, Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas said in an interview with CNBC ahead of the company's Thursday Nasdaq debut.
But CEO Masayoshi Son, who made a fortune through Chinese juggernaut , said SoftBank had reduced its "exposure in China" by a significant amount.
Complicating that statement, however, is Arm's dependence on Chinese customers who, for now, are still able to purchase the company's semiconductor technology and designs.
Neither Arm nor SoftBank, which acquired Arm for $32 billion in 2016, directly control their China subsidiaries. In 2018, SoftBank in the China business to a group of Chinese investors. Arm now only directly owns about 5% of Arm China, but the group still accounts for nearly a , according to pre-offering filings.
That relationship may face in the coming months. The Biden administration has continue to implement stringent export controls on high-powered semiconductors that can be used for artificial intelligence. The restrictions have already hit and , and while Arm doesn't fabricate its own chips, it does sell designs to many chip companies.
The Biden administration has also introduced on key technology sectors.
Son was focused on SoftBank's stake in Alibaba, which over the past few years. "Most of the shares in Alibaba from SoftBank [are] already sold," Son told CNBC's David Faber in an interview.
The reduced exposure may have less to do with and more with SoftBank's own portfolios. SoftBank has taken on its Vision Fund I and II, although Vision Fund I is now One of the biggest prizes in its nonpublic portfolio, TikTok owner ByteDance, has been under pressure from the U.S. government related to data collection practices.
