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SoftBank Group’s Masayoshi Son has made no secret of his intention to double down on the red-hot artificial intelligence industry. Now, he’s raising money for his next step in that strategy. According to a report bloombergSoftBank’s founder is seeking $100 billion to create a new venture that will compete with companies like Nvidia in the field of AI chips.
Code-named Izanagi, the new venture will collaborate with chip design company Arm, which SoftBank spun off as a public company last year. it still Owns about 90% of Arm’s stock Till this month.
Following some of the same moves used by SoftBank when it put together its larger Vision Fund investment funds, the report says it will tap Middle East-based institutional investors for about $70 billion of the $100 billion. Is planning to do. The remaining $30 billion will be borne by SoftBank itself.
A SoftBank spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by TechCrunch for comment on the report.
Nvidia currently dominates the AI chip market with its GPU chips. But with the need for AI processors only projected to grow – and much more work to be done to improve efficiency and cost – there is a clear opportunity for others to compete with alternatives, whether they be similar GPUs or new approaches. For GPU or completely different processing approaches.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman Talks are reportedly also going on Investors in the UAE will raise an attractive amount of $5 trillion to $7 trillion for a new AI chip project. OpenAI’s efforts are particularly noteworthy as the company has been a leader in generative AI development, powering other services with its GPT models and powering its own services like ChatGPT.
All of this makes OpenAI one of the biggest customers in the world for these chips right now, and makes the chips one of OpenAI’s biggest expenses. Altman has reportedly met with a number of potential investors, chip industry experts and others from around the world, including SoftBank’s son, for the new AI chip initiative. The Izanagi project appears to be separate from Altman’s AI chip ambitions, Bloomberg reports.
Details of SoftBank’s new project have not been disclosed, including which companies will build the core technology and the timeline.
Shift the Focus to AI (from Alibaba)
A new chip project would be in line with the company’s new focus on AI.
SoftBank has historically earned a large portion of its strongest returns from its initial investment and stake. Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba, which has earned more than $70 billion over the past few years. But from March 2023 – When?SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsa Goto said The company was “getting ready to go on the offensive with the AI revolution on the horizon” – It is gradually selling parts of its stake to reinvest the money. in ai,
The move into AI could be considered offensive, according to Goto’s comments, but it was also defensive: It came nearly a year after the SoftBank report. Vision Fund loses $32 billionIts high-profile, high-stakes effort to become a major player and kingmaker in the world of juggernaut startups,
Still, SoftBank has seen solid improvement because of its remaining 90% stake in Arm. The Vision Fund’s returns last quarter were the highest since March 2021, and Arm shares increased by approximately 50% Thanks to the increasing demand for AI chips. (It also helps Nvidia, one of Arm’s customers, has a stake in At the chip design firm, a disclosure led to a surge in Arm’s price last week.) “The hand will soon be indispensable to AI,” Goto made the claim earlier this month.
Arm, which was acquired by SoftBank in 2016 for $32 billion, is slated to list on Nasdaq in September 2023, British chip design company valued at $54.5 billion in IPO,
Apart from Nvidia, Arm’s customers also include smartphone makers and chip designers. Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon In the design and operation of large language models,
SoftBank reported its first quarterly profit for the quarter ending December 31, 2023, nearly three years after four consecutive losses, helped by gains in its 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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