Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank Group Corp., is developing plans to enter the AI chip market with a projected $100 billion investment over the next four years. According to a report by Min Jeong Lee and Ian King for Bloomberg, Son aims to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in AI hardware.
The initiative involves leveraging SoftBank’s 90% stake in Arm Holdings to develop energy-efficient AI chips, with the first prototypes expected by summer 2025 and production-ready chips by 2026. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is likely to be the manufacturing partner, while recently acquired Graphcore Ltd. will provide technical expertise.
SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto confirmed the company’s readiness to support Son’s vision financially, though specific funding details remain under discussion. The project, sometimes referred to as “Izanagi,” could potentially involve partnerships with OpenAI and other tech companies. Son’s strategy focuses on expanding AI capabilities beyond data centers into homes and offices, addressing the growing demand for AI processing power and energy efficiency.