Arm has announced that it is acquiring a minority stake in Raspberry Pi as it wants to help put low-cost computers into the hands of people and businesses around the world that need Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Arm said that this deal further cements a partnership that has been ongoing since 2008.
Raspberry Pi is probably familiar to you by now, but if not, it creates small, low-cost, computer boards that can be used to run lightweight operating systems or fancy projects that the community keeps on inventing. Raspberry Pi’s latest computer is the Pi 5, the 8GB variant is currently available for $80.
Commenting for Arm, Paul Williamson, SVP and GM, Internet of Things Line of Business, said:
“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.”
Meanwhile, Raspberry Pi’s CEO Eben Upton said that Arm technology has always been central to its platforms and that this development is “an important milestone in our longstanding relationship”. He went on to say:
“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.”
Arm hasn’t outlined anything specific that it would like Raspberry Pi to create as part of the investment but as a stakeholder it will have more say going forward. It will definitely be interesting to see whether Raspberry Pi launches any new product line-ups as a result of this deal. It also gives the Raspberry Pi Foundation more financial security.
Source: Arm