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ARM's upcoming IPO is shaping up to be one of the biggest equity market listings of the year. In keeping with the growing hype around this event, the chip designer is now trying to attract as many industry bigwigs as possible to ensure the success of its IPO.

For the benefit of those who might be unaware, ARM is currently owned by Japan's SoftBank Group. The UK-based firm designs silicon chips and licenses instruction sets that govern how chips communicate. Additionally, ARM's intellectual property – including the company's Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) – is utilized by the likes of Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Huawei for their smartphone chips, ensuring market coverage of around 90 percent.

Back in June, Reuters reported that Intel was eyeing a major role in ARM's upcoming IPO. Bear in mind that ARM is expected to raise anywhere between $8 billion and $10 billion by publicly listing its shares later this year.

In recent weeks, Intel has accelerated its cooperation with ARM on numerous fronts. The two companies recently signed a multi-generational agreement to manufacture next-gen mobile SoCs on Intel's 18A process node. Under the deal, ARM can leverage Intel's "open system foundry model" to customize diverse areas such as chipsets, packaging, and software. Do note that Intel has, up till now, predominantly delved into the manufacturing of x86 chips.

Now, Financial Times is reporting that ARM is negotiating with NVIDIA to become one of the anchor investors in its IPO. The semiconductor giant is reportedly seeking to invest in ARM at a valuation that ranges between $35 billion and $40 billion, a far cry from the $80 billion valuation that SoftBank has been actively seeking for ARM. As a refresher, SoftBank had purchased ARM for $32 billion back in 2016. NVIDIA was slated to acquire ARM at a $40 billion valuation but was forced to walk away from the deal after facing stringent competition-related opposition from regulators around the world.

Do note that the chip designer's ultimate valuation is still up in the air, and the company could be worth anywhere between $30 billion and $70 billion, as per the reporting by Bloomberg.