The News
Japanese investment group Softbank said Wednesday that it had agreed to buy US chip startup Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion, deepening its push into artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Ampere makes processors for data centers based on a design by Arm, a British chipmaker that Softbank acquired in 2016.
“The future of Artificial Super Intelligence requires breakthrough computing power,” Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son said. “Ampere’s expertise in semiconductors and high-performance computing will help accelerate this vision.”
In January, the Japanese conglomerate joined other technology companies to back US President Donald Trump’s Stargate Initiative, which aims to expand AI data center infrastructure in the country.
It comes as Ampere seeks to disrupt Intel and AMD’s hold over the market for the processors and microprocessors used for ‘inferencing’, which includes providing answers to chatbot queries. Last year Ampere announced plans for a chip designed for AI inferencing applications.