Semiconductors (Photo: Bloomberg)
SoftBank Group’s Arm Holdings plans to develop artificial intelligence chips, aiming to launch the first products in 2025, Nikkei Asia reported on Sunday.
Britain’s Arm will set up an AI chip division and aim to build a prototype by spring 2025, the report said. Mass production will be handled by contract manufacturers and is expected to start in fall 2025, Nikkei Asia said.
Arm will pay the initial development costs, which could amount to hundreds of billions of yen, with SoftBank also contributing, the report said.
Once a mass production system is set up, the AI chip business could be spun off and placed under SoftBank, the paper said, adding that SoftBank is already negotiating with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp and others over production, looking to secure production capacity.
Arm, SoftBank and TSMC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The British chip designer, which licenses its chip designs and makes money through royalties, has expanded into the data center market where operators want to build their own chips to power new AI models and reduce their dependence on dominant supplier Nvidia.
First print: May 11, 2024 | 11:32 PM IST