Ampere Computing, which designs server chips for some of the biggest names in the cloud market, is reportedly exploring a potential sale.

The California company, which is backed by Oracle and counts Google Cloud and Microsoft among its customers, is said to be open to bids from larger chip firms, Bloomberg reported today.

Citing people familiar with the company’s thinking, Bloomberg said Ampere has been working with a financial advisor for several months exploring a sale. It could also opt to remain independent, according to the source.

Founded in 2017 by CEO Renée James and a group of her former Intel colleagues, Ampere designs chips specifically for servers based on the Arm architecture, which has grown in popularity among data center operators in recent years.

Initially based on Arm’s Neoverse blueprints, Ampere now designs its newest range, Ampere One, with entirely in-house Arm cores.

As well as working with Microsoft and Google, Ampere designs chips for the likes of Tencent and TikTok owner ByteDance. However, it is also competing against many of its customers, with multiple cloud providers now designing their own Arm-based chips to offer to customers or for internal use.

In 2021, it was reported that SoftBank was considering taking a stake in Ampere Computing in a move that would have valued the company at $8 billion.

It then filed for an IPO in 2022, with documents revealing that Oracle had invested in the company to the tune of $426 million. The Bloomberg report said an IPO is currently off the table, but Ampere may revisit the idea in the future.

Ampere declined to comment when approached by Bloomberg.