Shares of British-based chipmaker ARM Holdings are surging on the London Stock Exchange after Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) said last night that its new Windows operating system would work with chips designed by ARM.

Shares of ARM had soared as much as 12.6 percent in early trading.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s boss, made the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Microsoft's mobile version of Windows already runs on chips designed by ARMN.

Previous versions of Windows used chips manufactured by Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC).

ARM’s microchip blueprints are already in almost all mobile phones, including the iPhone and iPad of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)

ARM trades in New York under the symbol “ARMH.”

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