SoftBank Acquires Ampere in $6.5 Billion Cash Deal
SoftBank Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Ampere Computing, a Silicon Valley-based chipmaker, for $6.5 billion in an all-cash transaction. The deal, expected to close in the second half of 2025, marks a bold strategic move by SoftBank to deepen its investment in AI infrastructure and high-performance computing.
Ampere, founded in 2017 by former Intel executive Renee James, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank. The company, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, employs roughly 1,000 semiconductor engineers and has quickly become a key player in the data center chip market. Its cutting-edge server processors, based on Arm architecture, power workloads at major cloud providers such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba, and Tencent.
The deal also involves a complete share buyout from Ampere’s primary investors. Carlyle, which currently owns 59.65% of Ampere, and Oracle, holding 32.27%, will both sell their stakes. Interestingly, SoftBank had previously considered a minority investment in Ampere back in 2021 when the company was valued at $8 billion.
Ampere’s technology is seen as a natural complement to SoftBank’s existing chip portfolio. SoftBank remains the largest shareholder of Arm Holdings, having acquired the British semiconductor designer for $32 billion in 2016. Arm went public again in 2023, and its compute platform forms the backbone of Ampere’s server chips. With this acquisition, SoftBank strengthens the link between its Arm ecosystem and the future of AI computing.
Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s visionary Chairman and CEO, emphasized the strategic importance of the move:
“The future of Artificial Super Intelligence requires breakthrough computing power. Ampere’s expertise in semiconductors and high-performance computing will help accelerate this vision and deepen our commitment to AI innovation in the United States.”
The acquisition aligns with a recent flurry of AI-focused investments by SoftBank. These include its partnership with OpenAI to build “Cristal intelligence,” an advanced enterprise AI system, and its backing of Stargate, a data center initiative designed to support OpenAI’s expansion across the U.S. Additionally, SoftBank recently purchased a Sharp factory in Japan to repurpose it for AI hardware production.
Renee James, who led Ampere from inception and helped steer it into the AI compute space, sees the acquisition as a powerful validation:
“With a shared vision for advancing AI, we are excited to join SoftBank Group and partner with its portfolio of leading technology companies. This is a fantastic outcome for our team, and we are excited to drive forward our AmpereOne roadmap for high-performance Arm processors and AI.”
As the AI race intensifies, SoftBank’s bold bet on Ampere reflects its broader ambition to play a central role in the next generation of computing infrastructure—positioning itself at the intersection of chip innovation, cloud computing, and AI-driven transformation.
