SoftBank Group announced Wednesday that it plans to purchase Ampere Computing, a semiconductor startup specializing in ARM-based server chips, for a $6.5 billion deal. The acquisition is expected to end in the second half of 2025.
The acquisition will strengthen the Japanese giant’s capabilities in key areas and will support growth plans as they expand their investments in AI infrastructure, including ventures such as Cristal Intelligence and Stargate.
News of the acquisition comes just weeks after SoftBank announced it was a talks to secure $16 billion in loans to promote artificial intelligence ambitions.
Ampere was founded in Silicon Valley in 2018 with a focus on cloud-native computing. Since then, startups have expanded to sustainable AI Compute, offering a diverse range of products designed for workloads across the cloud, from edge computing to large data centers.
“We’re looking forward to seeing you in the future,” said Renée J. James, founder and CEO of Ampere. “This is an incredible result for our team and we are excited to advance our Ampereone® roadmap for high-performance arm processors and AI.”
Renee James, founder and CEO of Ampere Computing
Meanwhile, private equity firms Carlisle Group and Oracle have both agreed that Ampere investors will sell their shares. According to SoftBank, Ampere will continue to operate independently, headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
“The future of artificial superintelligence requires groundbreaking computing power,” said Masayoshi Song, chairman and CEO of SoftBank. “Ampre’s expertise in semiconductors and high-performance computing will accelerate this vision and deepen our commitment to AI innovation in the US.”
According to SoftBank, Ampere has around 1,000 semiconductor engineers. The company was founded in 2017 by former Intel President Renny James, who spent nearly 30 years with Chip Giant.
SoftBank is making bigger moves in its AI infrastructure, including its recent partnership with OpenAI to develop Enterprise AI Solutions. The company is also involved in Stargate, a $500 billion private AI investment initiative linked to President Donald Trump.
SoftBank has been involved in the semiconductor business for years. According to CNBC, it acquired the UK chip designer arm for $32 billion in 2016 and opened the company in 2023.
Ampere’s chip based on the ARM instruction set provides an alternative to Intel and AMD’s X86-based processors. Arm-based chips gain traction in cloud computing for energy efficiency. Amazon Web Services offers its own Graviton Arm chips, widely adopted by enterprise customers. Microsoft introduced a Cobalt 100 ARM-based cloud computing instance last October.
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