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Softbank's Masayoshi Son is reportedly seeking $100 billion to establish a new AI chip venture

TechBrunchBy TechBrunchFebruary 19, 20244 Mins Read
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SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son has made no secret of his intentions to double down on the popular artificial intelligence industry. Now he's raising money for the next move in his strategy. SoftBank's founder is seeking $100 billion to form a new venture to compete with Nvidia and others in the AI ​​chip space, Bloomberg reports.

The new venture, codenamed “Izanagi,'' will be a collaboration with Arm, a chip design company that SoftBank spun off as a listed company last year. As of this month, he still owns about 90% of Arm's shares.

The report says SoftBank will follow some of the same strategies it used to raise its massive Vision Fund investment fund, with about $70 billion of the $100 billion total coming from Middle East-based institutional investors. He said that is the plan. The remaining $30 billion will be covered by SoftBank itself.

When contacted by TechCrunch for a response to this report, a SoftBank spokesperson declined to comment.

Nvidia currently dominates the AI ​​chip market with its GPU chips. However, with the need for AI processors expected to continue to grow and much work to be done to improve efficiency and cost, there is clear scope for competitors to compete with alternatives, including comparable GPUs and new approaches. is. Move to GPUs or completely different processing approaches.

OpenAI head Sam Altman is also reportedly in talks with UAE investors to raise a staggering $5 trillion to $7 trillion for new AI chip projects. ing. OpenAI's efforts are particularly noteworthy. That's because the company is at the forefront of generative AI development, both in using his GPT model to power other services, and in powering its own services like ChatGPT.

As a result, OpenAI is now one of the world's largest customers for these chips, and the chips are one of OpenAI's biggest expenses. Altman reportedly met with a number of potential investors, chip industry experts and others around the world, including SoftBank's Son, for his new AI chip initiative. Bloomberg reports that the Izanagi project appears to be separate from Altman's AI chip ambitions.

Details of SoftBank's new project have not been disclosed, including which company will build the core technology and the schedule.

Shift focus to AI (from Alibaba)

The new chip project will be in line with the company's new focus on AI.

SoftBank has historically earned the most from its early investments and equity. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has generated more than $70 billion in profits over the years. However, after March 2023 — whenSoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said: “The AI ​​revolution is just around the corner and we are preparing to go on the offensive,” the company said. gradually selling off some of its shares to reinvest the funds to AI.

According to Goto's comments, the move to AI may have been characterized as offensive, but it was also defensive. That came about a year after SoftBank's report. Vision Fund Loses $32 Billiona high-profile, high-stakes effort to become a major player and kingmaker in the world of giant startups..

However, SoftBank is showing a steady recovery, partly because 90% of its Arm shares remain.Last quarter's Vision Fund returns were the highest since March 2021, with Arm stock increased by almost 50% Thanks to the growing demand for AI chips. (It also helps that one of his Arm customers, Nvidia, has a stake in the chip design company, a revelation that led to Arm's price skyrocketing last week.) “Soon, Arm will be essential to AI.” Goto made the claim earlier this month.

Arm was acquired by SoftBank in 2016 for $32 billion and listed on the Nasdaq in September 2023. IPO values ​​British chip design company $54.5 billion.

In addition to Nvidia, Arm's customers also include smartphone manufacturers and chip designers, including: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon In the design and operation of large-scale language models.

SoftBank posted its first quarterly profit in the quarter ending December 31, 2023, after four consecutive years of losses, backed by profits from the Vision Fund. SoftBank shares closed 2.8% higher on Monday after news of Son's AI chip project broke on Saturday.



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