SoftBank Group Expands AI Portfolio with $6.5 Billion Ampere Deal

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SoftBank Group Corp. announced on Wednesday that it will acquire U.S. chip startup Ampere Computing in a $6.5 billion all-cash transaction. Ampere, which focuses on AI, was founded by former Intel president Renee James in 2018. The company specializes in data center central processing units (CPUs) based on Arm Holdings’ computing architecture, used by firms like Oracle for their cloud infrastructure. As part of the deal, Ampere’s major investors, Oracle and Carlyle Group, will exit the company.

Ampere's chips are built with custom core technology, a move typically undertaken by larger companies like Apple or Qualcomm. While Google initially adopted Ampere's chips, it later moved to develop its own "Axon" CPU with Arm, halting further use of Ampere's products. With SoftBank now taking ownership, Ampere will join Arm under the umbrella of SoftBank’s expanding chip technology portfolio, all aimed at advancing AI.

“We’re thrilled to join SoftBank Group and partner with its leading tech companies to drive the AmpereOne roadmap for high-performance Arm processors and AI,” said Renee James, Ampere's CEO, in a statement.

Paraphrasing text from "Reuters" all rights reserved by the original author