(Reuters) – SoftBank Group's arm Holdings (NASDAQ:) plans to develop artificial intelligence chips and aims to launch its first product in 2025, Asian newspaper reported on Sunday.
UK-based Arm will establish an AI chip division and aim to build a prototype by spring 2025, the report added. According to Nikkei Asia, mass production will be handled by a contract manufacturer and is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2025.
According to the report, initial development costs will be borne by Arm and could amount to hundreds of billions of yen, with SoftBank (TYO:) also expected to invest.
The paper reported that once a mass production system is established, there is a possibility that the AI chip business will be spun off and placed under the SoftBank umbrella, and SoftBank is already in manufacturing negotiations with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and other companies to secure production capacity. He added that
Arm declined to comment, while SoftBank and TSMC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
British chip design companies, which license their chip designs and make money through royalties, are expanding into the data center market and carriers are ramping up new AI models to become dominant suppliers. The company is trying to build its own chips to reduce its dependence on Nvidia (NASDAQ:). .
