Arm is owned by Softbank, the Japanese investment giant - and its chip designs are found in nearly every smartphone on the planet, as well as Apple laptops and some Windows machines.

Its plan for an Arm IPO comes 18 months after a deal to sell Arm to U.S. chipmaker Nvidia fell through-- after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued to stop the deal.

Arm's stock market launch is expected to be a shot in the arm for a lackluster IPO market, which over the last year has seen several high-profile startups delay their listing plans over volatility.

The listing could also help boost Softbank's funds so it can invest in more startups-- company CEO Masayoshi Son said recently he wants to invest more in AI.

Founded in 1990, Arm was publicly listed from 1998 until 2016 when SoftBank took Arm private.

Its re-entry is set to come at a time when the smartphone market is in a slump, set to hit a decade low, according to Counterpoint Research.

Though on Monday Arm said it's only seen a 1% drop in annual revenue, signalling that it's weathering the downturn better than most-- and suggesting its per-chip rates have increased.

On top of the near-monopoly of its designs in device chips, it is moving into sectors that are still booming.

Its tech has also gained 10% market share in cloud computing, used in networking and in chips for servers.

The company was recently valued at $64 billion, though some analysts have said that figure is inflated.

SoftBank reportedly plans to seek a valuation of between $60 billion and $70 billion for Arm, which expects to list on the Nasdaq.