SoftBank's Arm to Develop Proprietary AI Chips, Aiming for Less Dependency on Nvidia
Summary:
Arm, a SoftBank-owned processor designing company, plans to create its own artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Arm will bear initial development costs, estimated in the hundreds of billions of yen, backed by SoftBank. Mass production is expected by Autumn 2025, potentially leading to a spin-off AI chip business under SoftBank. The move aims to decrease Arm's reliance on Nvidia, as it accelerates its focus on AI in line with SoftBank's shift. This follows SoftBank's reported net profit in fiscal Q4 2024, largely due to its focus on AI, where Arm is seen as a significant part of future plans.
Arm, a company owned by SoftBank that specializes in processor design, has confirmed its intention to create proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) chips, fueled by income from AI-related ventures. According to a Nikkei Asia report on May 13, Arm is establishing a department dedicated to AI chip development. Its inaugural offering is expected to be presented by Spring 2025 with mass production commencing in the same year's fall. Arm will initially shoulder the development costs, projected to be in the hundreds of billions of yen, supported by SoftBank, which has a 90% interest. Once mass manufacturing is established, SoftBank may potentially spin off the AI chip operations. To assure mass chip production, SoftBank is reportedly discussing arrangements with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, among other organizations. Arm, whose technology is featured in the primary chips of "nearly all smartphones and tablets," as per the company, commands over 90% of the architecture market for smartphone processors. Arm also provides Nvidia, a top AI chip developer, with architecture. By creating their own chips for advanced AI models, Arm hopes to diminish its dependence on Nvidia. This development comes in the wake of SoftBank’s reported net profit in Q4 of fiscal 2024, following a reorientation towards AI. Arm is an integral element of the corporation's vision for the coming year. SoftBank's CFO, Yoshimitsu Goto, during a Tokyo press conference, noted that the AI sector's increasing interest and advancement is the group's primary concern: "The AI transition of the SoftBank Group places Arm at the helm of creating a new ecosystem that harnesses our longstanding AI-integrated assets, primarily the Vision Fund." Anticipated AI exploits lead to a 30% increase in Arm's stock in February. The company belongs to a growing cohort of tech developers keen on crafting in-house AI chips to lessen Nvidia reliance. On April 15, Samsung announced a $6.4 billion grant to enlarge its Texas semiconductor chip manufacturing facility, with an estimated $45 billion invested by the decade's end. Earlier in February, reports touted OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT, an extraordinarily potent AI chatbot, was soliciting trillions in global investor funds to kick off its own chip production.
Published At
5/13/2024 3:32:00 PM
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