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Focusing on an initial public offering.

SoftBank is considering fully or partially selling British chip designer Arm Holdings and has hired Goldman Sachs to advise it on further Arm deals, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

This comes as a bit of a surprise after Apple’s promise to swap to the Armbased Apple Silicon within two years, though this isn’t the first time SoftBank has indicated potentially returning Arm to the public market. The Japanese company currently owns Arm in its entirety, after buying the company for US$32 billion in 2016.

Arm designs the microprocessors that power most of the world’s smartphones. Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm all make use of Arm technology, though any attempt on Apple or Samsung’s part to buy Arm outright would likely trigger intense regulatory scrutiny. Further, even with Apple Silicon, few companies have a need to own Arm outright, given the breadth of its business. A return to the public market is probably more likely, with sources telling CNBC that “the announcement was made to focus the company on an initial public offering more than a year from now.”