ARM vs KKR Comparison

Arm Holdings is the IP owner and developer of the ARM architecture, which is used in 99% of the world's smartphone CPU cores, and it also has high market share in other battery-powered devices like wearables, tablets, or sensors. Arm licenses its architecture for a fee, offering different types of licenses depending on the flexibility the customer needs. Customers like Apple or Qualcomm buy architectural licenses, which allow them to modify the architecture and add or delete instructions to tailor the chips to their specific needs. Other clients directly buy off-the-shelf designs from Arm. Both off-the-shelf and architectural customers pay a royalty fee per chip shipped.

KKR is one of the world's largest alternative asset managers, with $723.2 billion in total managed assets, including $585.0 billion in fee-earning AUM, at the end of September 2025. The company has two core segments: asset management (which includes private markets—private equity, credit, infrastructure, energy, and real estate—and public markets—primarily credit and hedge/investment fund platforms) and insurance (following the firm's initial investment in, and then ultimate purchase of, Global Atlantic Financial Group, which is engaged in retirement/annuity and life insurance lines as well as reinsurance).