Hodder snaps up Ashton’s ‘landmark’ telling of the rise of British tech company Arm Holdings 

Hodder & Stoughton is set to publish the first book telling the complete story of British tech company, ARM Holdings by financial journalist James Ashton.

Huw Armstrong, editorial director, acquired world English language rights to The Everything Blueprint: Processing Power, Politics, and the Microchip Design that Conquered the World from Toby Mundy at Aevitas Creative Management.

Hodder & Stoughton will publish the investigation into “how the company has become an integral part of the global semiconductor industry” in hardback, e-book and audiobook in spring next year.

ARM Holdings is the UK’s flagship technology company, creating low-cost, low-power microchip designs that are used billions of times every year, the publisher’s synopsis begins.

Established in Cambridge in 1990, ARM can be found in Apple’s iPhone and iPad, but also countless devices made by Samsung, Google and Amazon, as well as in cars, defence systems and data centres.

"In becoming a global technology standard at the heart of modern computing and consumer electronics, ARM helped to forge Nokia’s early mobile phone success, battled with chip giant Intel and today collaborates with a vast ecosystem of 13 million software engineers to develop new applications" the publisher said. "But it has had to endure an agonising search for new ownership ever since SoftBank, the Japanese investment firm, opted to sell the business it paid £24bn for in 2016."

The publisher goes on: “The ARM story is told against the backdrop of an increasingly bitter fight for global microchip supremacy between the US and China and chronicles the rise of several sector leaders, including Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC and Dutch equipment maker ASML, which are pushing production to its limits.

“The Everything Blueprint is a powerful and detailed investigation into ARM Holdings and the balance of power within the global microchip market. From its modest beginnings, James Ashton details the meteoric rise of this company, the rows and setbacks, and how microchips have become the new battleground in geopolitical relations.”

Ashton, former City editor and executive editor at the London Evening Standard, said: “ARM is arguably the biggest business story to emerge from the UK in modern times. Touching every part of the globe, its technology was born from British ingenuity, developed with an immediate international mindset, and, in an industry famous for litigiousness and cut-throat competition, has thrived on widespread collaboration. I’ve tried to put ARM in the context of society at large as well as the wider chip industry, where politicians today play as big a part in corporate success as investor billions and the constant race to boost processing power.“

Armstrong added: “It’s hard to exaggerate just how important ARM is to the UK tech sector. It’s a genuine success story and something we should be proud of. James has written a gripping book here. Not only has he detailed the rise of the company, but he shows how corporate giants, and subsequently governments, have fought over these tiny chips. This is a brilliant and urgent read.”