News Summary

SoftBank Group announced a strategic acquisition of Ampere Computing, a US-based semiconductor design startup founded by former Intel executive Renee James. The all-cash deal, valued at $6.5 billion, aims to enhance SoftBank’s investment in AI infrastructure. Ampere will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank, with Carlyle and Oracle selling their shares in the company. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2025. Ampere, known for its expertise in cloud-native computing and sustainable AI compute, has developed server chips based on the ARM compute platform, with customers including Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud. SoftBank’s Chairman and CEO, Masayoshi Son, emphasized that Ampere’s capabilities in semiconductors and high-performance computing will accelerate the vision for Artificial Super Intelligence. This acquisition marks another significant step in SoftBank’s recent series of strategic deals to bolster its AI initiatives.