- Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group already owns a majority stake in UK chip designer Arm
- Now it is adding US chip developer Ampere Computing to its portfolio
- The catalyst, as in many cases these days, is AI and its infrastructure demands
- It would also give SoftBank Group an additional pitch in the radio access network (RAN) infrastructure sector
SoftBank Group, the Japanese technology and investment giant founded and run by its chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son, has taken the next step in its efforts to become a global leader in the AI infrastructure sector with an agreement to acquire chip developer Ampere Computing, based in Santa Clara, California, for $6.5bn in cash, a move that will also strengthen SoftBank’s hand in the next-generation radio access network (RAN) tech sector.
The acquisition of Ampere, which develops central processing units (CPUs) for cloud servers, was expected – Bloomberg reported in January that negotiations between the companies were underway. Ampere had been seeking a buyer for some time as it came under increasing competitive pressure from the likes of Intel and AMD, pressure that impacted its revenues significantly in recent years: In 2024, Ampere generated revenues of just $16.5m (down from $46.7m in 2023) and reported an operating loss of $510.6m.
