Arm, one of Britain’s biggest technology companies, is cutting hundreds of staff weeks after a $40bn (£31bn) deal to sell the company to Nvidia fell apart.

Rene Haas, Arm’s newly-installed chief executive, told staff on Monday that the redundancies would affect 12 to 15pc of its global workforce.

The Cambridge-based business has 4,400 staff and around 1,747 in the UK, meaning the cuts could affect more than 600 employees.

Arm designs the microchips in billions of electronic devices such as smartphones around the world. It is planning to go public within the next year after the business’s owner, Japanese investor Softbank, called off the sale to Nvidia amid opposition from regulators.

Mr Haas told staff that the majority of job losses will be in the UK and US, saying the company had to be more disciplined about costs.

In an email seen by the Telegraph, he said: “This is going to be a tough time for everyone, so I want to be clear on why we are doing this.

“To be successful in the opportunities we have ahead of us, we need to be more disciplined about our costs and where we’re investing.

“To stay competitive, we need to remove duplication of work now that we are one Arm; stop work that is no longer critical to our future success; and think about how we get work done. It’s essential that we focus on activities that will move our strategy forward at pace.”

Arm embarked on a rapid hiring spree after SoftBank acquired the company for £24bn in 2016, promising to double staff over five years. The legally-binding jobs pledges it had made to the Takeover Panel at the time expired in September.

Simon Segars, Arm’s former chief executive, had warned that its levels of investment would not be sustainable if the company was forced to go public instead of being sold to Nvidia.

Mr Haas said the company would seek to help staff move to other jobs.

He said: “I write this knowing that although it is the right thing to do for Arm’s future, this is not going to be easy.”

Arm unveiled an increase in revenue earlier this year, and Mr Haas had said the company is well positioned to keep investing. 

Mr Haas also recently oversaw the departure of several key executives.

An Arm spokesman said: “Like any business, Arm is continually reviewing its business plan to ensure the company has the right balance between opportunities and cost discipline. Unfortunately, this process includes proposed redundancies across Arm’s global workforce.”