SoftBank is reportedly looking to take its business elsewhere and have TSMC take over manufacturing for its AI processors. Should this be true, this news could be another significant blow to Intel which has been employing various financial strategies to become fiscally solvent, including laying off roughly 15% of its workforce following another 10% who were let go in 2023. Intel also just announced this week its plans to sell off its $147 million stake in ARM to recoup funds so it could compete with TSMC with its own AI chips. SoftBank has been the majority stakeholder in ARM Holdings since 2016 making this potential business loss a major hit for Intel, who according to The Financial Times, has been unable to meet SoftBank’s manufacturing needs.
SoftBank, TSMC, Intel, and NVIDIA
It has been reported that talks between the two have not been going well and are at risk of collapsing but Intel still may have a chance given the current industry-wide manufacturing limits. Now while neither SoftBank nor TSMC have commented about their potential dealings it is known that TSMC is already working hard to meet the demands of another Intel rival. NVIDIA already has a contract with TSMC for its upcoming Blackwell GPUs which are expected to launch sometime around the new year. Interestingly enough NVIDIA was once on track to purchase ARM Holdings but that multibillion-dollar deal fell through following pushback from various regulatory entities and other complications.
SoftBank and AI
News that SoftBank is looking to partner with TSMC also follows its recent purchase of Graphcore, a British AI chip designer, and there has been other news that is has much bigger plans in store. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is reportedly attempting to raise $100 billion so that he can compete with NVIDIA.
Per Data Centre Dynamics:
- “SoftBank has long been interested in entering the AI chip space, with reports that the company’s founder Masayoshi Son was looking to raise $100 billion for an AI chip venture dubbed Izanagi to compete with Nvidia first surfacing in February 2024.”