Dive Brief:
- Investment giant Softbank Group plans to acquire U.S. chip designer Ampere Computing Holdings in a $6.5 billion deal, the companies announced Thursday.
- The deal aligns with Softbank's strategy to drive artificial intelligence and computing growth, according to a news release. The transaction is expected to close later this year.
- As part of the deal, Ampere will become an independent subsidiary under Softbank, with its headquarters to remain in Santa Clara, California.
Dive Insight:
The purchase of Ampere is part of Softbank's push further into chip design. The investment firm called out Ampere's expertise in the development of lightweight and fast Arm-based processors, used to power a wide array of electronics, as one of its key strengths. The processors were initially built by chip designer Arm Holdings, which SoftBank bought in 2016.
"The future of Artificial Super Intelligence requires breakthrough computing power,” Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank, said in a statement. “Ampere’s expertise in semiconductors and high-performance computing will help accelerate this vision, and deepens our commitment to AI innovation in the United States.”
As part of the deal, current majority shareholders Carlyle and Oracle will sell their stakes in Ampere.
Softbank has been leveraging external partnerships to forge ahead on AI, with an emphasis on OpenAI and its wildly popular ChatGPT.
In February, SoftBank and OpenAI announced plans to collaborate on a new enterprise AI system called “Cristal intelligence,” which will integrate individual data enterprises onto one platform. SoftBank also agreed to invest $3 billion to deploy OpenAI's software across its group of companies.
The partnership came weeks after SoftBank announced plans to participate in a $500 billion investment project in OpenAI's U.S. infrastructure over the next four years. The company is serving as an equity partner in the project alongside OpenAI, Oracle and MGX.
Ampere was founded in 2018 and now operates across nine locations in North America, Europe and Asia, according to its website. The company has been losing revenue in recent years, posting a $510 million operating loss in 2024 and making it more vulnerable to a takeover.
