The founder of Softbank Group reportedly has his sights set on a new venture: a $100 billion AI chip company called Project Izanagi, which could one day rival the dominance of AI leaders like Nvidia, Intel and AMD.
According to BloombergMasayoshi Son says that $30 billion of the required funding for Project Izanagi, which will focus on artificial general intelligence (AGI), is expected to come from Softbank, while the remaining $70 billion may come from Middle Eastern investors . However, the details of the financing and implementation are still unclear and the project may undergo further evolution.
Project Izanagi is planned to work in synergy with Arm, a chip design company in which Softbank has a 90% stake. However, exactly how the two companies will interact remains a mystery for now.
An impossible dream?
Despite facing several setbacks in his startup investments, Son’s enthusiasm for AGI is palpable. He was quoted by Bloomberg saying, “AGI is what every AI expert is looking for. But if you ask them about a detailed definition, a number, the timing, how much computing power, how much smarter AGI is than human intelligence, most of them don’t have an answer. I have my own answer: I am convinced that AGI will really exist in ten years.”
The task of building a company that can successfully compete with Nvidia is a monumental one. Nvidia has a wealth of talented hardware engineers, highly competitive hardware, and a ubiquitous CUDA software stack, which has been evolving for over 16 years.
It makes sense that Son’s Project Izanagi AI processors would use technologies like the Arm-developed instruction set architecture (ISA) to give it an edge, but the new venture could also choose to look elsewhere. Softbank is among companies said to be interested in buying cash-strapped British chip designer Graphcore.