Ampere Computing Joins SoftBank in $6.5 Billion Data Center Chip Deal

Ampere Computing will be purchased by SoftBank for $6.5 billion. While leading investors Carlyle and Oracle will sell their shares, Ampere will continue to function as a fully owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group and keep its brand.

The majority of the major cloud providers offer Ampere's high-performance Arm CPUs, which are developed mainly for the data center sector. With its AmpereOne Aurora, which has up to 512 Ampere Cores, the business has concentrated on the high-end server market. It builds its unique cores while using the underlying Arm ISA, which lowers its licensing payments to Arm and allows it greater influence over chip development.

SoftBank, on the other hand, is still Arm's biggest stakeholder. With its acquisition of Nuvia, it tried in vain to sue Qualcomm for its efforts to create bespoke cores and lower prices. In addition, Arm intends to launch its server CPU, going beyond the licensing model to create goods that rival those of its clients, such as Ampere. There are rumors that the corporation is working on an AI chip.

SoftBank is rumored to be considering establishing another AI chip business for $100 billion after acquiring the faltering AI chip startup Graphcore. The business is also the biggest supporter of OpenAI's Stargate and a funder of OpenAI. Longer-term plans are unknown, although Ampere will remain independent of Arm for the time being. It is anticipated that the transaction will conclude in the second half of 2025, subject to standard closing conditions, such as governmental clearances.

Back in 2021, there were rumors that SoftBank and Oracle were considering an $8 billion agreement to invest in Ampere. Although the business filed in confidence for an IPO in 2022, it never went public.