Squawk Pod: Davos 2026 – Conversation with ARM CEO Rene Haas

Podcast: Squawk Pod
Episode: Davos 2026: ARM CEO Rene Haas
Date: January 23, 2026
Host Panel: Becky Quick, Joe Kernen, Andrew Ross Sorkin
Notable Guest: Rene Haas, CEO of ARM Holdings
Reporter/Producer: Cameron Costa

Episode Overview

In this special episode from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ARM CEO Rene Haas sits down with the Squawk Box anchors to discuss the company’s pivotal role in the rapidly-growing AI ecosystem. The conversation covers ARM's business model, the AI era’s unprecedented demand on semiconductor supply, energy efficiency, future breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, and big-picture questions about the singularity and societal change.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. ARM’s Omnipresence and Business Model

• ARM technology powers an extraordinary range of devices, from smartphones and data centers to cars and home appliances.
• ARM operates on a licensing model: they provide CPU IP (Intellectual Property) to chipmakers, who in turn manufacture and deploy chips in end products.

Notable Quotes:

• "Enough ARM chips have been shipped to cover every person who's ever lived on the planet and then some." – Rene Haas (03:03)
• "ARM is… referred to as the Switzerland of the semiconductor industry. It would be hard...to find a company that doesn't use ARM." – Rene Haas (03:40)

2. Energy Efficiency and AI Workloads

• AI’s voracious appetite for compute has placed new strains on energy infrastructure and data center operations.
• ARM’s focus continues to be on highly energy-efficient processors, which are increasingly critical as AI models grow larger and inference moves to edge and wearable devices.

Notable Quotes:

• "As more complex AI gets, energy efficiency is everything, which we’re really good at." – Rene Haas (04:28)
• "We're also in small devices like wearables that consume less than a watt of power…critical to be able to run those AI workloads in small devices such that we're not consuming so much energy in the cloud." – Rene Haas (04:58)

3. Semiconductor Supply Chain and Data Center Scaling Challenges

• Demand for compute power is causing shortages in memory, wafers, and even broader infrastructure elements like electricity and transmission lines.
• Progress has been made in addressing supply bottlenecks, but moving energy to where it’s needed (for example, establishing transmission lines for new data centers) remains a substantial challenge in the U.S.

Memorable Segment:

• "[In] the US we actually have a fair bit of energy, but it's actually getting that energy to the places where the data centers need to be—transmission lines that require contracts and easements…our industry never had to worry about." – Rene Haas (06:12)

4. AI Breakthroughs and Domain-Specific Progress

• The panel discusses the potential for groundbreaking advances that may reduce the need for raw compute, such as domain-specific AI architectures or energy-efficient memory designs.
• Haas is optimistic about such innovations but suggests that big, domain-specific leaps are more likely than a single all-encompassing breakthrough.

Notable Quote:

• "There could be some innovation in that area that could be a new chip architecture, a new memory architecture, less energy…AI models…will become very domain specific, specific to certain areas and problems." – Rene Haas (07:11)

5. AI, Creativity, and the Inevitable Singularity

• The discussion pivots to existential and societal questions:
  • Will AI replace workers?
  • At what point does AI begin to invent, create companies, design products?
  • When does the singularity (machine intelligence at/par with or beyond human intelligence) occur?
• Haas is convinced that it is not a question of "if" but "when" the next level of AI creativity emerges, citing the accelerating pace of innovation.

Memorable Quotes:

• "Does AI start to replace workers? Does AI start to invent? At what point does AI create? What is the next product?...It is an area to sort of explore in your mind." – Rene Haas (07:53)
• "It's not an if question, it's a when question. This will happen, right? If you look at the level of innovation in the last 10 years compared to the previous 50 or hundred, it will get there." – Rene Haas (08:36)
• "In my mind, we don't know after that, we have no idea. That's why it's called a singularity." – Joe Kernen (08:52)

6. Self-Driving Cars and Predicting the Timeline

• Using autonomous driving as an analogy, the group discusses "conelike" risk—the uncertainty of predicting how soon major technological milestones will occur.
• Haas believes full self-driving is simply a matter of generational change and inevitability.

Notable Quote:

• "Self-driving cars as a constant is going to happen. There will be a generation that will look at standing parking garages and say what was that generation thinking? That they actually had cars that sat idle for 23 hours of a day." – Rene Haas (09:29)

Timestamps for Critical Segments

• ARM’s Ubiquity in Tech – 00:49–01:20, 03:03–03:40
• Energy Efficiency Focus – 04:28–05:27
• Supply Chain Disruptions & Data Center Power – 05:27–06:43
• AI Models, Innovation, and Future Risks – 06:43–08:52
• Singularity, AI Creativity, and Societal Change – 08:52–09:29
• Self-Driving Cars & Future Generation’s Perspective – 09:29–09:42

Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• ARM’s reach:
  "ARM is…referred to as the Switzerland of the semiconductor industry."
  – Rene Haas (03:40)
• On energy and AI:
  "As more complex AI gets, energy efficiency is everything…”
  – Rene Haas (04:28)
• On moving energy, not just producing it:
  "It's actually getting that energy to the places where the data centers need to be..."
  – Rene Haas (06:12)
• On AI’s future:
  "It's not an if question, it's a when question. This will happen."
  – Rene Haas (08:36)
• On the unknowable future:
  "In my mind, we don't know after that, we have no idea. That's why it's called a singularity."
  – Joe Kernen (08:52)
• On self-driving's inevitability:
  "There will be a generation that will look at standing parking garages and say what was that generation thinking? That they actually had cars that sat idle for 23 hours of a day."
  – Rene Haas (09:29)

Tone and Style

The exchange is insightful, engaging, and at times lightly humorous, with the hosts pressing gently and Haas providing clear, forward-looking answers. The conversation balances industry specifics with big-picture speculation—a mix of technical acumen and vision about the future of AI and technology.

Summary

This episode provides a rare window into the infrastructure enabling today’s AI explosion, and Rene Haas articulates the massive (but mostly invisible) reach of ARM’s technology. From the inside, Haas’s "when-not-if" stance on technological leaps underscores a conviction that innovation—particularly in AI—is speeding past historical benchmarks. The group’s musings on the singularity and self-driving cars frame a larger question: how much of our future remains in the hands of technologists, and how much in the hands of society at large?