The data-center chipmaker could be riding a wave of interest in its latest processors all the way to a public offering. Credit: iStock California-based chipmaker Ampere confidentially filed for an initial public offering on April 11, when it submitted a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Founded by the former Intel president Renée James in 2017, Ampere designs fabless server processors based on Arm architectures. It is riding a strong wave of recent demand thanks to its latest Altra and Altra Max CPUs, which are designed for the data center based on the Arm Neoverse N1 architecture. It counts the likes of ByteDance, Cloudflare, Equinix, Oracle, and Tencent as customers of its processors. Microsoft also recently announced the public preview of its new Azure virtual machines powered by the Arm-based Ampere Altra server processors. The VM series includes the general-purpose Dpsv5 and memory-optimized Epsv5 virtual machines, which Microsoft claims can deliver up to 50% better price-performance than comparable IBM x86-based VMs. By filing confidentially, Ampere does not have to make significant disclosures into its financial performance and operations until 15 days before the public offering and has greater flexibility in when it decides to float, if at all. Softbank-owned chip designer Arm is also expected to go public this year after its proposed acquistion by Nvidia was called off. Related content feature Is immersion cooling ready for mainstream? Liquid cooling started as a fringe technology but is becoming more common. Proponents hope the same holds true for immersion cooling. By Andy Patrizio Dec 04, 2023 9 mins Green IT Data Center feature Startups look to revamp power-guzzling data centers As AI workloads strain traditional facilities, these 10 startups are working to reduce resource consumption through liquid cooling, digital boiler technology, and net zero data center initiatives. By Jeff Vance Dec 04, 2023 14 mins Data Center Automation Data Center Management Green IT news Broadcom to lay off over 1,200 VMware employees as deal closes The closing of VMware’s $69 billion acquisition by Broadcom will lead to layoffs, with 1,267 VMware workers set to lose their jobs at the start of the new year. By Jon Gold Dec 01, 2023 3 mins Technology Industry Mergers and Acquisitions news analysis Cisco joins $10M funding round for Aviz Networks' enterprise SONiC drive Investment news follows a partnership between the vendors aimed at delivering an enterprise-grade SONiC offering for customers interested in the open-source network operating system. By Michael Cooney Dec 01, 2023 3 mins Network Management Software Industry Networking Podcasts Videos Resources Events NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe