Investor Bill Baruch buys Arm, citing pivot to AI chips and recent Meta deal as catalysts
Investor Bill Baruch says he’s buying shares of Arm Holdings , pointing to the semiconductor and software design firm’s recent deal with Meta as a key catalyst as the company pushes deeper into building its own chips. While Arm Holdings has historically only licensed its chip architecture, the company recently shifted its business model to make physical in-house chips for the first time ever. Meta has signed up as Arm’s first official customer, with other committed customers including OpenAI, SAP and Cloudflare . Shares jumped 16% after CEO Rene Haas said that the company expects its newly released chip will generate annual revenue to the tune of $15 billion in 2031. Baruch, the founder and president of Blue Line Capital, highlighted Arm as an attractive name within the central processing unit, or CPU, space. He mentioned that while the firm is mainly known for powering smartphones, it has recently moved into CPUs. “There’s a lot to remain to be seen there,” Baruch said of the Meta deal. “But Arm is following the narrative, and it is continuing to break out above $200 here today. So we got our toes in; going to trust it here, and I think from a narrative standpoint, you have to have CPUs in your portfolio.” Shares of Arm Holdings have surged nearly 89% this year. ARM YTD mountain ARM YTD chart Baruch also recently added to his position in Entegris , which supplies critical advanced materials for semiconductors. Baruch said that Entegris, and some other names lower down the supply chain, “are really underpriced.” “I think there’s some room here to run. It’s a very, very hard barrier to entry in this space,” he said. “This name was very quiet through 2024 ā a failed acquisition, they had to spin off a couple small units within the business. I think it’s now leaner, and I think the way that you’re starting to see it ā they’re integral in the supply chain. They do a lot with the memory names.” Shares of Entegris have soared 73% this year. ENTG YTD mountain ENTG YTD chart