SoftBank’s subsidiary ventures into semiconductor chip development and achieves profitability following a transition to AI.

Arm, a processor designer owned by SoftBank, has revealed its plans to develop its own artificial intelligence (AI) chips in order to capitalize on the growing AI market. According to a report from Nikkei Asia, Arm will establish a new division dedicated to AI chip development, with the first prototype expected to be released by spring 2025 and mass production planned for autumn of the same year. The initial development costs, estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of Japanese yen, will be covered by Arm, with support from SoftBank, which holds a 90% stake in the company. There is a possibility that the AI chip business may eventually be spun off under SoftBank once mass production is underway. SoftBank is currently in talks with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp and other companies to secure capacity for chip production. Arm is known for providing technology used in the main chips of smartphones and tablets, holding a share of over 90% in processor architecture for smartphones. The company also supplies architecture to Nvidia, a leading AI chip developer. By developing its own chips for high-level AI models, Arm aims to reduce its reliance on Nvidia. This move follows SoftBank’s focus on AI, which resulted in a net profit in the final quarter of its financial year for 2024. SoftBank’s CFO, Yoshimitsu Goto, stated that the group sees growing interest and development in the AI sector as a key focus. Arm’s stock saw a 30% surge in February due to its AI ambitions, joining other technology developers in the pursuit of in-house AI chip development to reduce dependence on Nvidia. In related news, Samsung recently secured a $6.4 billion grant to expand its Texas facility for semiconductor chip manufacturing, with a total investment of $45 billion expected by the end of the decade. Additionally, OpenAI, the company behind the powerful AI chatbot ChatGPT, is seeking trillions of dollars in investments to manufacture its own chips.