On the 20th, Japan's SoftBank Group announced that it will acquire the U.S. semiconductor design firm Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion (approximately 9.5 trillion won).
In a press release on the same day, SoftBank noted that "it will acquire all shares of Ampere through its subsidiary Silver Banks 6" and added, "This transaction is expected to be completed in late 2025 after receiving approval from U.S. authorities, and as a result of the transaction, Ampere will become a wholly owned subsidiary indirectly."
According to the Nikkei, Ampere's shares are currently held by the U.S. private equity firm Carlyle at 59.65%, the U.S. software company Oracle at 32.27%, and a company related to the U.K. semiconductor design firm Arm at 8.08%. SoftBank acquired Arm in 2016 for approximately 3.3 trillion yen (around 32.4 trillion won) and listed it on the U.S. Nasdaq market in September 2023, making it a key part of its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy.
The Nikkei reported, "SoftBank Group has added a cutting-edge semiconductor-related corporation to its portfolio after Arm," and added, "Ampere has strengths in large-scale data processing and the field of artificial intelligence (AI)." It further noted that this acquisition could complement Arm's design capabilities.
Earlier, in January, SoftBank publicly announced the Stargate project, a joint venture with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and Oracle to establish data centers in the U.S., planning to invest up to $500 billion (around 729 trillion won) over the next four years.
Later, in February, it announced plans to create a joint venture with OpenAI in Japan to develop generative AI. The Nikkei expects that SoftBank will continue to accelerate investments in AI infrastructure in the U.S. as promised to the Donald Trump administration and in the development of generative AI in Japan.