SoftBank has talked to both Nvidia and Apple about selling all or part of Arm to them, reports Bloomberg.

Apple, which was one of the founding investors in Arm, is reported to be uninterested in buying Arm outright because it would cause conflicts of interest with Arm’s customers.

However Apple, as a user of Arm cores, might be interested in taking a stake as it did in the sale of Toshiba Memory (now Kioxia).

SoftBank is now reported to be talking to Nvidia about a sale.

Nvidia’s reasons for wanting Arm are less obvious than Apple’s.

Nvidia doesn’t need Arm’s GPU technology and Arm’s place in the server market is insignificant.

Intel might see the acquisition of its main architectural rival as a coup but it would kill Arm’s licensing business stone dead.