Squawk Pod: Davos 2026: Arm CEO Rene Haas - 01/23/26 | Audio Only
Speakers
Rene Haas
— CEO, Arm
Summary
At Davos 2026, Arm CEO Rene Haas tells CNBC's Squawk Box that Arm's CPU IP is ubiquitous across smartphones, data centers, autos, and wearables. He argues AI workloads will keep growing, making energy efficiency critical, and says Nvidia's Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin platforms use increasing amounts of Arm technology. He also flags semiconductor supply-chain constraints and data-center power bottlenecks, while discussing domain-specific AI models and long-term automation trends.
- Arm licenses CPU IP used in Nvidia, Apple, Samsung, Google, and Microsoft devices.
- Rene Haas sees AI workloads proliferating across cloud and edge devices.
- Energy efficiency is presented as a key competitive advantage for Arm.
- Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform reportedly uses six times more Arm CPUs.
- Semiconductor supply constraints include memory, wafers, and turbines.
- U.S. data-center power is constrained by transmission and easement issues.
- AI models may become domain-specific, potentially shifting winners and losers.
- Haas expects self-driving cars and advanced AI to arrive eventually, timing uncertain.
Ideas
Arm benefits broadly from AI proliferation.
Arm licenses CPU intellectual property that serves as the compute platform for smartphones, data centers, automobiles, appliances, and wearables. Haas says AI workloads are running everywhere, and as AI grows more complex, energy efficiency becomes critical—an area where Arm is strong. He calls this a huge opportunity for Arm and says it is hard to find a company that does not use Arm.
AI compute keeps chip volumes strong.
Haas says anyone in the semiconductor supply chain is affected by shortages—memory, wafers, and even turbines—but the amount of compute required is so large that all chip companies are still reporting large numbers. The volume backdrop for semiconductors remains strong despite bottlenecks.
