Raspberry Pi Receives Strategic Investment from Arm, Further Extending Long-Term Partnership

[AleksandarK]

Arm Holdings plc (Nasdaq: ARM, "Arm") and Raspberry Pi Ltd today announced an agreement by Arm to make a strategic investment in Raspberry Pi. Arm has acquired a minority stake in Raspberry Pi, further extending a successful long-term partnership between the two companies as they collaborate to deliver critical solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) developer community.

As the demand for edge compute accelerates, with the proliferation of more demanding IoT and AI applications, Raspberry Pi's solutions are putting the power of low-cost, high-performance computing into the hands of people and businesses all over the world. This investment further cements a partnership that began in 2008, and which has seen the release of many popular Arm-based Raspberry Pi products for students, enthusiasts and commercial developers. Raspberry Pi's most recent flagship product, Raspberry Pi 5, became available at the end of October.




"Arm and Raspberry Pi share a vision to make computing accessible for all, by lowering barriers to innovation so that anyone, anywhere can learn, experience and create new IoT solutions," said Paul Williamson, SVP and GM, Internet of Things Line of Business, Arm. "With the rapid growth of edge and endpoint AI applications, platforms like those from Raspberry Pi, built on Arm, are critical to driving the adoption of high-performance IoT devices globally by enabling developers to innovate faster and more easily. This strategic investment is further proof of our continued commitment to the developer community, and to our partnership with Raspberry Pi."

"Arm technology has always been central to the platforms we create, and this investment is an important milestone in our longstanding partnership," said Eben Upton, CEO, Raspberry Pi. "Using Arm technology as the foundation of our current and future products offers us access to the compute performance, energy efficiency and extensive software ecosystem we need, as we continue to remove barriers to entry for everyone, from students and enthusiasts, to professional developers deploying commercial IoT systems at scale."

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[Solaris17]

This makes me oddly uncomfortable. I can't wait for pi prices to increase dramatically because ARM said so.

 

[GreiverBlade]

This makes me oddly uncomfortable. I can't wait for pi prices to increase dramatically because ARM said so.

increase it more in Switzerland? madness ... a Pi 4 8gb is 150-189chf a Pi Zero W is 27ish (43chf with GPIO pin) chf and the Pi Zero 2 W i acquired recently, luckily was 29chf ....
basically double the price https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w/ 15$? ahahaha ... nope
and the few RPi 2 and 3 i owned where in the 70chf+ range ... even so many years ago

nonetheless totally worth it to upgrade a RPi Zero W for a Rpi Zero 2 W

i still own and use an Odroid C2 which is about the only SBC who did not cost me more than 25chf (and still in between a Rpi 3 and 4 )

 

[silentbogo]

nonetheless totally worth it to upgrade a RPi Zero W for a Rpi Zero 2 W

If you can find it as well(at least cheaper than the good-ole ComputeStick)... I needed quite a few of them for a worthy project, had to ask a friend so he can ask his friend to get it from the physical Pi shop all the way in England, and still they "just ran out" of Zero 2W(even though they were still "in stock" on their website the next day), so we only got a boxful of puny Zero Ws.
Same with Pi4. I drooled over it for several years, and only got one recently: a broken one that was used on frontlines for some time. Fixed it up. Now i only need to make sure I won't kill it in a few years, cause I don't think I'm getting a Pi5 anytime soon.

 

[GreiverBlade]

If you can find it as well(at least cheaper than the good-ole ComputeStick)... I needed quite a few of them for a worthy project, had to ask a friend so he can ask his friend to get it from the physical Pi shop all the way in England, and still they "just ran out" of Zero 2W(even though they were still "in stock" on their website the next day), so we only got a boxful of puny Zero Ws.
Same with Pi4. I drooled over it for several years, and only got one recently: a broken one that was used on frontlines for some time. Fixed it up. Now i only need to make sure I won't kill it in a few years, cause I don't think I'm getting a Pi5 anytime soon.

RPi Zero 2 W were in stock by Galaxus (tho only 1 left in stock after i bought mine) but i waited with it on wishlist + mail notice for quite some time

put that Pi4 on display with a commendation (or make a themed case for it) ... i really do hope it served well on the frontline ...

i do not dare hope to get a RPi 5 anytime soon too ... iirc the price will be just as obnoxious as the 2, 3 and 4 locally ...

a CM4 with a GPi case 2 + dock eventually would be the only upgrade for the retroflag unit i have ... but too expensive as well and why change what's not broken and still compatible
a GPi Case 2 + dock would be 75chf and a CM4 2gb would be 110chf

 

[silentbogo]

put that Pi4 on display with a commendation (or make a themed case for it) ... i really do hope it served well on the frontline ...

It might go back in one of my other janky creations )))

 

[sLowEnd]

If you can find it as well(at least cheaper than the good-ole ComputeStick)... I needed quite a few of them for a worthy project, had to ask a friend so he can ask his friend to get it from the physical Pi shop all the way in England, and still they "just ran out" of Zero 2W(even though they were still "in stock" on their website the next day), so we only got a boxful of puny Zero Ws.
Same with Pi4. I drooled over it for several years, and only got one recently: a broken one that was used on frontlines for some time. Fixed it up. Now i only need to make sure I won't kill it in a few years, cause I don't think I'm getting a Pi5 anytime soon.

Man, I wish Intel didn't give up on those compute sticks so quickly.

 

[dragontamer5788]

This makes me oddly uncomfortable. I can't wait for pi prices to increase dramatically because ARM said so.

I don't think that's at play here, really. Other ARM platforms, like Beaglebone, remain available for us anyway. Or that Orange Pi rival. Etc. etc. The chief competitor to Rasp. Pi is other ARM devices.

IMO, the real issue is that Rasp. Pi has lost its way and is catering to SFF PC market rather than the maker / under 5W crowd. Like seriously, the most recent Rasp. Pi 5 has risen to 12W and Rasp. Pi 4 was already in the 8W+ region. Perhaps people are still happy for the relatively low costs of Rasp. Pi, but power-efficiency is the big problem in practice IMO. Other SBCs, albeit slower ones, more consistently hit 2W or 3W benchmarks, allowing for more reliable 4xAA usage. 8W (Rasp. Pi 4) was pushing it, but 12W is likely well beyond what typical portable batteries can accomplish.

"Ultrabook" Laptops are traditionally 15W by the way. So Rasp. Pi is getting pretty power-heavy compared to its original form.

 

[Solaris17]

I don't think that's at play here, really. Other ARM platforms, like Beaglebone, remain available for us anyway. Or that Orange Pi rival. Etc. etc. The chief competitor to Rasp. Pi is other ARM devices.

IMO, the real issue is that Rasp. Pi has lost its way and is catering to SFF PC market rather than the maker / under 5W crowd. Like seriously, the most recent Rasp. Pi 5 has risen to 12W and Rasp. Pi 4 was already in the 8W+ region. Perhaps people are still happy for the relatively low costs of Rasp. Pi, but power-efficiency is the big problem in practice IMO. Other SBCs, albeit slower ones, more consistently hit 2W or 3W benchmarks, allowing for more reliable 4xAA usage. 8W (Rasp. Pi 4) was pushing it, but 12W is likely well beyond what typical portable batteries can accomplish.

"Ultrabook" Laptops are traditionally 15W by the way. So Rasp. Pi is getting pretty power-heavy compared to its original form.

This is a fair argument for sure. Lets hope arm doesnt influence them and the foundation finds its way back to cost effective devices.

Man, I wish Intel didn't give up on those compute sticks so quickly.

Man I had one and those things were sick!

 

[silentbogo]

Lets hope arm doesnt influence them and the foundation finds its way back to cost effective devices.

They already have Sony on board, and so far nothing bad happened (more good than bad). At least in short term, investment from ARM will do some good for the supply.
The main issue is not investors, but company's internal priorities. They aren't a small company anymore, so they cater most of their stock to industry and businesses, while still pretending to be a "small company" making open-source mini-PCs for hobbyists and enthusiasts. At least that's the whiff I got from relatively recent Jeff Geerling's factory tour.

 

[friocasa]

It would have been nice to see a Pi based on RISC-V

 

[silentbogo]

It would have been nice to see a Pi based on RISC-V

There's already a bunch of them based on Allwinner D1. Not sure if we need more - performance and drivers aren't there yet.

 

[dragontamer5788]

There's already a bunch of them based on Allwinner D1. Not sure if we need more - performance and drivers aren't there yet.

Every CPU has its own support. Despite all being "ARM", ARM is just the instruction set. The device drivers differ dramatically.

There's an incredible amount of support for Rasp. Pi chips due to the shear number of people working on the chip. Engineers can also just design the chip and document it well, such as Microchip's SAM9x60 line (albeit its an industrial computer, but with mainline Linux support and well documented bootup process), or Beagleboard / TI's AM355x series.

Allwinner gives neither: it has fewer users and has piss poor documentation.