SoftBank has agreed to acquire chip start-up Ampere Computing for $6.5bn as the Japanese tech group’s founder Masayoshi Son expands his ambitions in artificial intelligence.
The deal is the latest big move by Son, who has said SoftBank will build a vast infrastructure for AI that includes chip design, production, energy, robotics and data centres.
Ampere makes processors for cloud computing and data centre applications based on technology from UK chip designer Arm, which is majority-owned by SoftBank.
Arm intends to launch its own chip this year after securing Facebook owner Meta as one of its first customers, in a radical change to its business model of merely licensing its blueprints to the likes of Apple and Nvidia.
The chip will tap surging investment in AI infrastructure by big tech groups and is expected to be a processor for servers in large data centres, built on a base that can be customised for clients.
Ampere and its chip designers are seen in the industry as another building block for Arm’s evolution. SoftBank also bought UK-based, AI-focused chip start-up Graphcore last year.
SoftBank said Ampere would “serve a critical role in the industry as hyperscalers and data centre providers are increasingly looking to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs”. Ampere was founded by former Intel president Renée James in 2018.
“This is a fantastic outcome for our team, and we are excited to drive forward our . . . road map for high-performance Arm processors and AI,” James said in a joint statement on Thursday.
In January, SoftBank and OpenAI unveiled a plan called Stargate to spend a purported $500bn building AI infrastructure in the US, with Abu Dhabi state fund MGX and Oracle also providing funding.
Arm is a key technology partner for Stargate, along with Microsoft and Nvidia.
California-based Ampere will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank but retain its name.
Major investors Oracle and private equity group Carlyle will sell their stakes in Ampere as part of the deal, which is expected to close in the second half of this year.
