Raspberry Pi goes to IPO: What does it mean for Makers? 

"This hasn't changed" is pre-IPO speak for "This is gonna change once we are accountable to shareholders.

The problem with Publicly owned companies is the focus changes from what the consumer wants (great value and competitive products) to what the shareholders want (profit)

Worst idea ever! Shareholders and Board of Directors is the fastest way to ruin a company.

I was hoping this would be a video about a waterproof rpi enclosure for monitoring your pool

Raspberry Pi hasn't been customer focused since the rpi 4, so par for the course really

Keep in mind that an “Intention to Float” document (or its equivalent, the S-1 used on NYSE/NASDAQ) is primarily written towards big money investors that wouldn’t know the difference between an RP1 and can of Red Pepper (and maybe don’t care). They want the raw financial numbers, the percentage of TAM, the gross margins, the track record of the executives. The hobbyist is, sadly, far far away from the interests of the company at this point. Doubly-so when the company has to answer to its new stockholders. Sorry. That sounded very negative and slightly school bookish. Oops. However, on positive side, fresh money will accelerate new product design and manufacturing volume. That’s a good thing!

A lot of companies fall into ruin chasing ever increasing profits

Businesses gonna business. And shareholders expect a return on their investment. Definitely not going to be the same in the future.

RIP, can’t wait to see you what smaller companies do when they try to fill the vacuum - when raspberry Pi becomes an absolute joke in 5-6 years.

Another nail in Raspberry Pi coffin.

Rpi died 4 years ago this was just the last nail in the coffin. mini pcs nowadays are x86 with the same size, quadruple the ram and performance for the same price and more or less same wattage oh lest i forget with an integrated gpu that can actually transcode

Red shirt Jeff seems awfully calm hosting this video....

Capitalism gonna capitalize... wait I've said this before on your video about corporate open source :D I'm not thrilled about this. I've been souring on Raspberry Pi's over the past 4 years and this doesn't help. Between their treatment of the hobbyist/education market, their pricing creep (yes you touched on this in the vid I didn't comment before watching) and this announcement, I'm wondering if hobbyists will coalesce behind an alternative. The pi 4 was my last pi purchase (I can't justify spending $60+ on a pi 5) and I don't know that I'll buy another one of their products. I've tried several boards in the past few years but the community/support just isn't there yet. Maybe this will be the push we all need to find a better alternative.

During the covid years i discovered esp32 microcontrollers and as you say, i can run sensors and drive leds, relays and displays and connect to wifi. There is not a much computing power on an esp32 but an esp32 can do quite a bit. Like you said as well, the pi is now somewhere in between a mini pc and a microcontroller that can run linux.

Rip RPi

Agree, pi500 with m.2 slot would be nice for my kids

I have 3 Pi's I'm not using anymore. I intend to use one for a hardware project but, there's no reason to use a PI if you're not using GPIO. I have a feeling this is the beginning of the end for the PI. You can buy intel powered mini-pc's new for about the price as a decked out PI5. 15 watts and maybe 2-3 times the performance of the PI5. It really feels like the time of PI's is passing.

9:15 I really wouldn't buy an N95 computer, they're just low binned N100s, meaning they're not efficient and actually do make a fair amount of heat for a low end chip. You don't even actually save money by looking for one over an N100.

There's a *load* of additional information in the full "Registration Document" linked to in the announcement including details of all current shareholders and license terms for the use of trade marks. Over 180 pages will take quite some time to digest.

the pi 6 will come with a hardware-level chatGPT integration and a subscription OS

"non-cloneable silicon" doesn't mean you cannot buy the chips: You can buy reels of RP2040s and build whatever you want with them. Farnell over here in Blighty are selling reels of 3,400 at £0.553 a unit. It's a pretty decent chip (though it'd benefit from an FPU and better external RAM support).

Not sure about the RP1 but RP2040 for example is on the Radxa X2L x86 sbc so maybe that was more corporate speak in the document.

It's hard battling the monopolies and making millions of products, but public listings are mostly about insiders and cashing out. Stock up on boards while you can!

There it goes, looks like this had been the endgame all along.

I like your business analysis side. What is your main point? Agree Pi 500 w/NVME would be sweet.

Maybe they've reached the end of packing high computing performance into low cost boards on their flagship SBCs. Pi 5 is no longer a throw away price like 35 dollars used to be.

Hey Jeff! There are slight fps drops throughout some of you last videos :( Your hand movements between 3:10 and 3:25 in this video are a good example.

Catering to shareholders and catering to customers are two opposed positions. Good companies tend to go bad shortly after going public.

We all float down here.

Wow! It's limited edition St. Louis City SC-shirt Jeff!

Yup, and that’s the end of Raspberry Pi. Now you’re going to have to make money for the board and stock holders, moneys corruption is money corruption no matter what country you’re in.

I think Raspberry Pi LTD will continue to thrive as long as they support the community around RPi. It's the real killer app they have. The support and documentation available is just second to none when it comes to the micro-controller/linux mini-pc game. Which means a ton of business clients essentially get free tech support from an open community. That's not necessarily a bad thing, having more competitive businesses ecosystem through community is awesome, but seeing the numbers of business partners triple the education market (which has been known for a while now) is really disheartening. Especially when considering the Raspberry Pi Foundation's educational goals vs Raspberry Pi LTD's business goals. Sure, RPF could pivot to a different micro controller, or work with RPILTD to make a discounted educational model subsidized by their business partnerships, but that's antithetical to the goals of shareholders. Unless RPILTD's IPO is the first in history to have purely altruistic shareholders, the prospect of discounted educational computing devices becomes less and less likely.

Game over. Share holders want growth. The only way that plays out is the users get screwed. 😢

I suspect that the Pi IPO is about providing more robust income for the foundation. This is normal. I would expect the trustees to invest the money earned from the IPO in a more diverse range of commercial activities and hence secure the long term support for their educational goals.

if there is a pi500 with a nvme slot and a mechanical keyboard? insta buy.

During shortages ARM stuck by their business customers, while NVidia, EVGA, AMD, ASUS, Gigabyte, etc blew off their longtime customers to serve crypto-miners.

Agreed. I've been shopping mini-PCs recently, instead of a Pi 5. I do wish they had GPIO but the one that does, is really just tying a Pi Pico to it (IIRC it uses serial, not USB). And regarding the London v. U.S. listing... Total SE is contemplating a U.S. listing because most of their investors are in the U.S. and U.S. listings are typically a higher valuation, and it may be a better expression of their duties to shareholders to list in the U.S. (Currently is traded in the U.S. as an ADR.)

Competitive advantage and proprietary are the ugly words of a publicly traded company. Here in the US it is hard to get anyone to admit to this but these things are the unfortunate negative side effects of capitalism and a free market. It’s not all roses but it is the best system compared to all the others.

Please, god, no. The instant a company goes public, the customers take a backseat to the shareholders.

I too would love to see a RPi500........we should start a partition...........

I can't wait to see RPi 6 that's 3% faster than the pi 5 for 150$, still no power supply included.

I wonder when the first round of layoffs is going to happen.

ARM was created by 3 companies two of which were from the USA, it was very much a US company from the beginning. Its clear they want the money to make their own SoC for future Pi's.

with the next windows natively supporting arm, i expect them to offer desktop machines with more power and expansion slots this or next year, they have a opportunity to become a desktop manufacturer like hp or dell but focused on small size and low power it will be a change, for sure, but also could be a problem

Rpi zero 2 w is more powerful than many think.

Pi5 despite its performance is a rippoff

They need to underwrite at different prices. There is already enough pushback in the market on price that price based competition is starting. There are more tutorials that don't depend on the raspberry pi. So, things are likely to begin the slow and inevitable slide, which is good for consumers who want low prices. If they had managed to be keep up with supply during covid, they would likely remain the golden boy of the SBC market, but with the entrance of so many sellers that can compete at lower prices, I think that short of additional opportunities and serious gatekeeping/protectionism to get Raspberry Pi incredibly privileged contracts, they might be old news. What they need is a sugar daddy to float lines of credit during the times they need it, flexible repayment and virtually no threat of foreclosure outside of bad faith or misconduct by the executives - if the durable interest is affordable and relevant SBCs for computer education.

I probably should look at the docs, but my question was what specifically did they need the capital for. Especially when they're profitable! I'm thinking it's probably for independent silicon design. I wonder if there's a path to no Broadcom.

It did a lot of good while it lasted. We will remember the good times.

7 years from now. Microsoft's new Raspberry Pi 8.

I would rather the company go bankrupt than the companies image be ruined by shareholders tomfoolery. No matter how good it seem on the surface.

From WSJ: "Raspberry Pi generated revenue of $265.8 million in 2023 and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $43.5 million. " Sound like a gross profit margin of only 16%. They need to sell more of their Pi Cameras which I figure they net more than 85% gross margin. If only the crypto chip had stopped the camera clones. Also, your video should touch on whether or not RPI would be a good investment. My guess is not in the long run. They are rapidly squandering their early mover advantage. Sadly, not uncommon for the British.

Oh no.

Single Board Computers as a platform died a long time ago They're no longer the inexpensive idea they used to be some years ago and are outperformed en masse by mini PCs. And with the advent of cheaper FPGA boards and chips, they lost that bit of market as well when they only had to compute against micro-controller boards. And in some countries, they were never affordable to begin with.

The IP including the trade mark should have stayed with the Charity keeping the trading company focused and constrained - it was just a shell. Morally, legally? you can't start a charity and then asset strip it to form a competitive business. Just imagen if the BBC floated, it wouldn't because it has a unfair competitive advantage.

I'm hopeful for the Radxa X2L (or similar) filling the gap for makers that need the additional performance along with the RP2040 GPIO. I'm still a bit too cost aware for that route, but it sure is enticing!

Please Reply Can I install React OS, Ubuntu OS and other minimum requirement OS on Raspberry Pi Zero W and Raspberry Pi Zero W 2 ?

Jeff I normally really enjoy your content but this needs more work, your views are just Too US centric. ARM first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1998, I used to hold Arm shares. Why would a successful English company list in the US unless they are purely after quick cash and then cashing out. Hopefully they will be around a lot longer than that. Hopefully the Pi Foundation will have a 51% holding to stop it being merged into something else. Unfortunatly their success is forcing them down this route, if they want to develop more silicon then they are going to need more cash and the enthusiast market just isn't big enough for that level of investment as you highlighted in your video. If there is no new silicon there would be no more improvements in the boards.

Now Khadas go against RPi by the prices and new models of Rock 5. Yes the RPI communauty is a heavy weight but in 2-3 years... Time comes for an ARM desktop era not SBC.

It was fun while it lasted.

This is the kind of video I love from you. The moving house or new studio videos should not make it to the channel. They are irrelevant

Unless the CEO/founder holder the majority of the share, they WILL cave to the investors. And the investors always want infinite grow, in a finite world.

how many times do you need to get dumped as a second grade amateur user before you move on to greener pastures , open source and free software, open hardware are hard to make. when you dismiss your developer community that made your platform viable by enthusiastically writing all sorts of applications .. i can see no good outcome of this.

This is not an attempt to divest ownership in a company. They are just converting their ownership into publicly traded shares so that the present partners have a more fluid way to manage their share in the company. There are plenty of publicly traded companies that never ceded control to outside interests, companies like Walmart or Ford are examples.

I wonder if the decision the list on the LSE would make it easier for an acquisition by intel/ arm 🤔

This is how financialization happens. Turn sales profit (real value) into capital assets (IPO shares), then plow gains into real estate (nominal value). This is why ordinary people can’t buy a home, working even harder without becoming “capitalists” themselves. It’s that simple… 🙈

Once upon a time, Raspberry Pi was (way) ahead of competition. As in many markets, competition has been playing catch-up with gradually more success, up to the point that now it's about time for Raspberry Pi to come up with something innovative to surge ahead once again. That means investing and for investing you need money, hence they choose to go public. That's not necessarily a bad idea. It all depends on their vision, where they want to go and what they're going to come up with in terms of new ideas and products. Like it or not, even as a not-for-profit, Raspberry Pi does operate in a competitive environment and need to move forward. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt.

Let the enshittification begin.

Obvious thing to do for Eben and the board, as they'll all get many millions for their stock of the existing Ltd entity, and if they continue for a bit, in their current roles, the non executives they appoint, for many beer tokens, will point out they've been underpaying themselves, by an order of magnitude, and all receive a seven digit pay rise, to bring their pay in line with that of a PLC board, of a tech unicorn (value in excess of a billion). They'll also all be able to add the built and IPO'ed a unicorn, to their LinkedIn profiles, and see what opportunities are then proposed. Eben gets a pile of cash for his decade and a half as the head, as will the bankers, and lawyers involved in the IPO.

I would if they will go public on the NASDAQ?

Interesting. I thought the pi foundation was effectively being shut down? Read somewhere most staff had been transferred elsewhere.

they need pi6 not pi500 - why? cause you can easily add a kb to pi already - they are out to make more money and nobody can blame them but they need to do it the old fashioned way and just rely on better innovation and more iteration plus volume

I think the supply distribution boiled down to contracts in play. They had contracts to supply X amount of Pis and they honored them. It just sucked for the consumer market. But, of course, they didn't want to bite the hand... 👍🐕

RIP Raspberry PI

So Rasberry Pi is doing same thing as OpenAI?

Hmmm, stocks on the LSE vs American exchanges where companies that are just "pixie dust" SPACs that have no real value... Gee I'm not sure if I can think of an example. /s Seriously I do see a lot of indication that people don't know what stocks and IPOs and companies in general are all about. It's not the end of The Pi or anything like that, the two entities are completely different things. A stock is just a way to raise money. I guess there is so much corruption going on people think that's the only way things can go. I think it will be fine, I hope I'm not wrong. I think Jeff's analysis here is good

I think if they aren't careful then the community bubble will burst. The community support not only in buying Pis but troubleshooting and supplying fixes is their greatest asset. They delayed shipping the pi 5 to industry to say sorry to the community but in reality the community was used for a few months of beta testing the product before industry gets it. The other sbc's that gained ground over the Pi shortage could be adopted by the community in a heartbeat.

uhh, no ideo on that outro. maybe the physics girl? edit: nope you said "he" i forgot that

Raspberry pi has lost its way altogether

bad sign :(

Well, this sucks. Probably move to another platform in the future.

So it's official, Raspberry Pi has sold out to its big corporate/industrial customers. It doesn't seem that there has been anything truly innovative coming put from them for a long time anyway. Just tiny changes, add-ons, like a hat for a small M.2. It may be that their industrial base just wanted the run-of-the-mill, but stable, platform. For a while. Their document just touts the past with no blockbusters on the horizon. Not even a CM5. But the trajectory of the market is going to the competition from SBCs to small powerful boxes like GMK. RIP-RPi.

Regarding pandemic price increases. Limited supply of LPDDR4 memory chips increasing prices was a significant cause. Thus why the larger GB sizes where much harder to find, and why RPF re-introduced smaller memory editions of boards. In 2024, the fabs of memory chips have continued to constrain supply, thus keeping prices high. Not sure if a percentage are being reserved for AI nodes, or what is causing general supplies to be limited. Starting next year as many new silicon fabs under construction begin ramping production, prices should begin to ease. New fabs are also using more dense processes, so amount of memory per chip should increase at similar price points.

The only people who are angry about RPF prioritizing the business channel over the retail market are people who didn't hear RPF say over and over they had contracts they were *obligated* to fulfill.

The people commenting on here about how this move by RPi to float their business is a bad thing are quite ignorant. Developing the RPi 6 or greater takes a huge amount of investment. Where do the commenters think the investment money is going to come from when at the same time they also complain that RPi is increasing prices. This is not shameless capitalism rather the definition of capitalism itself. RPi will need a lot of capital going forward and no doubt has looked at many ways of raising capital and landed on this approach as best for their business long term.

RPi died for me when they went horribly pro cop. This was the final nail in the coffin

I wish them well, this should be great for the foundation and the share holders,

lmao RIP raspberry pi, sure wish you didn't hire a cop that bragged about illegal wiretapping, you died back then, but this will prove it to even the grognards lmao

Float, float on.

Finally, no more cringy "I am Jeff" at the end of the video. What a relief.