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Investing.com — Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:) plans to independently develop its own generative artificial intelligence as a wide range of industries enter the next segment, it said Thursday. The Nikkei Shimbun reported.
SoftBank has also developed a supercomputer to build the model, which it plans to provide to companies within a few years for application in specialized fields such as finance and medicine.
telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (TYO:) is also developing a similar generative AI, reports Nikkei.
The report comes just a week after SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said the company was actively exploring AI investments and opportunities and was switching to “attack mode” to ride the AI boom. was done.
Son also revealed that he is a heavy user of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and recently met with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
SoftBank’s turnaround comes after the tech conglomerate suffered heavy losses for the second year in a row as rising interest rates and deteriorating tech sentiment wiped out the value of tech investments.
The company has divested its most successful investments, mainly Alibaba Group (HK:) (NYSE:), to mitigate losses in its flagship Vision Fund.
But the company could benefit from growing interest in AI development given that it has been involved in chip manufacturing through its chip designer arm. AI developments are expected to boost demand for semiconductors this year, and the prospect has set off a surge in semiconductor manufacturing stocks in recent months.
SoftBank also plans to list Arm on the Nasdaq later this year, and the cash injection from the listing is expected to further increase its stake in the conglomerate.
SoftBank shares rose as much as 2% on the news, outpacing the 0.1% rise in the index.
SoftBank declined to comment on the Nikkei report.
