ARM server CPUs: Ampere Computing now belongs to Softbank like ARM and Graphcore
Softbank, whose CEO is also in charge of the gigantic Stargate AI project, is now following ARM and Graphcore in swallowing up CPU manufacturer Ampere Computing
Server CPU with ARM cores from Ampere Computing
(Image: c’t Magazin)
The Japanese group Softbank is buying the US company Ampere Computing, which develops and sells processors with ARM cores for servers, for 6.5 billion US dollars.
The Softbank Group, led by Masayoshi Son, is also the majority shareholder of the British company ARM and bought the AI chip developer Graphcore in 2024.
Masayoshi Son also leads the gigantic AI project Stargate, which was announced by US President Trump. Other important partners in Stargate are the AI company OpenAI and Ampere's largest customer to date, Oracle, which also holds a 29% stake in Ampere. ARM processors from Ampere are used by Oracle's Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) division.
Target AI processor?
There had been speculation about Softbank buying Ampere for some time. ARM itself has already publicly announced that it is considering developing its own physical server processors. So far, however, there has been no announcement or roadmap.
ARM is primarily known for the development of CPU cores in the form of blueprints for chip developers, so-called Intellectual Property Cores (IP cores). However, ARM also develops graphics processors, AI cores and other SoC components as well as ready-made combinations of these, the physical implementation of which has been tested in certain manufacturing processes by TSMC and Samsung, for example. These compute subsystems (CSS) significantly accelerate chip development.
The world's largest cloud service providers (hyperscalers) Amazon AWS (Graviton), Microsoft Azure (Cobalt 100) and Google Cloud (Axion) each use their own ARM server processors. They use the services of other chip manufacturers such as Broadcom and Marvell, as well as development service providers such as Alchip and Capgemini.
According to speculation, Meta (Facebook) also wants its own ARM processor, which could be developed directly by ARM.
There are no references to specific processors in the announcement of the takeover of Ampere Computing. According to the announcement, the Ampere brand will be retained.
(ciw)
