Softbank said it will acquire chipmaker Ampere Computing in a $6.5 billion all-cash deal. Oracle and Carlyle, Ampere's primary investors, have agreed to sell their stakes.
Carlyle owned 59.65% of Ampere, Oracle owned 32.27% and Arm owned 8.08%. Arm is a subsidiary of Softbank Group and Ampere is a licensee of Arm.
According to Softbank, Ampere, founded in 2018, will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. Softbank has been doubling down on AI infrastructure and has invested in the Stargate project and Cristal Intelligence in partnership with OpenAI and has venture funding spread across multiple startups.
Ampere designs high-performance, energy efficient processors for cloud and AI workloads. Softbank said: "Ampere's expertise in developing and taping out ARM-based chips can be integrated, complementing design strengths of Arm Holdings."
Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son said in a statement that Ampere accelerates its vision for "Artificial Super Intelligence" and "deepens our commitment to AI innovation in the United States."
Ampere's processors are Altra, Altra Max and Ampere One family. The company has focused on cloud-native energy efficient processing, but has pivoted to AI workloads too.
