Arm CEO says AI growth is being limited by finding enough talent: ‘I need more engineers’

Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas wants more engineers.

The AI train is running at full steam, but Arm CEO Rene Haas believes there’s one thing they need to keep it moving — more engineers.

Finding enough talent is “one of the real limiters” to the company’s growth, Haas told Bloomberg in a recent interview.

“Our opportunity is broad,” he said. “We’re in smartphones, PCs, cameras, automobiles, data centers — and all these solutions require more and more innovation. I need more engineers. We’re trying to expand globally.”

Arm is a British semiconductor and software design company. According to an SEC filing earlier this year, approximately 83% of the company’s 7,096 total employees were involved in engineering activities as of March — increasing from roughly 80% in 2023 and 75% in 2022.

“Competition for highly skilled personnel, and particularly engineers, can be intense,” Arm said in a section of the filing about risk factors facing the business.

The comments from Arm and its CEO highlight how the generative artificial intelligence boom following ChatGPT’s launch nearly two years ago has led to a talent war for top AI engineers and researchers.

A limited pool of researchers and candidates with experience in areas like machine learning and data engineering has allowed AI talent to become more selective when evaluating job offers. Some tech giants have tried to woo AI specialists with hefty compensation packages or personal reachouts from CEOs like Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg.

Ram Srinivasan, a future of work expert and managing director of consulting firm JLL, previously told B-17 that the high demand for AI talent has led to offers for top experts topping $1 million in total compensation.

“This competitive market is pushing up salaries and providing attractive financial incentives for tech workers,” he said.

According to a report from PwC, which analyzes half a billion job ads, roles requiring AI specialist skills can carry up to a 25% wage premium. The research also indicated that growth in AI specialist roles has outpaced all jobs since at least 2016.

While tech companies are racing to hire employees with AI expertise, other software developers are struggling not to get left behind amid industry-wide layoffs as companies look to cut costs and reallocate resources. Data from Indeed showed a 45% decrease in job postings since December 2023 in the software development sector.

Competition among tech workers has stiffened following the layoffs that swept the tech industry over the last two years following the hiring boom of the pandemic. According to layoffs-tracker Layoffs.fyi, over 264,000 employees were laid off from 1,193 tech companies in 2023, nearly 99,00 more than 2022. So far in 2024, over 141,000 employees have been laid off by 476 companies.

As of Monday, Arm had nearly 300 engineering-related roles open on its jobs site.