SoftBank Group’s announcement of its plans to acquire Ampere Computing, a semiconductor design company based in California, is a demonstration of investors’ growing appetite for AI deals. The $6.5 billion all cash acquisition, which is set to close in the second half of 2025, would make Ampere Computing an independent subsidiary of SoftBank.

Ampere Computing is a semiconductor design company that develops high performance processors and AI. The company’s initial focus was on cloud native computing, marked by the launch of the Ampere Altra family of cloud processors. Ampere Computing uses technology developed by Arm Holdings, the British semiconductor company that is majority owned by SoftBank. Ampere Computing’s latest focus is on the Ampere One family of high-performance Arm-based processors. To set itself apart from competitors, Ampere Computing has also been innovating ways to make chips more energy-efficient.

Renee James, the founder and CEO of Ampere Computing, was formerly the president of Intel. She founded Ampere Computing in 2017. Based in Santa Clara, California, Ampere Computing has around 1,000 employees worldwide.

Pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement, major existing investors in Ampere Computing will be required to exit or sell down their positions in the company. Such investors include Carlyle and Oracle.

In order to complete the acquisition, SoftBank plans to obtain approximately $1.5 billion in debt financing from Mizuho Bank and other lenders. The transaction will be a reverse triangular merger, meaning a subsidiary of the acquirer will merge with the target company, with the target company surviving. The target company, in this case Ampere Computing, will become a subsidiary of the acquirer, in this case SoftBank Group, upon closing of the merger.

SoftBank, a Japanese-based investment company led by Masayoshi Son. It is known for making investments in some of the largest tech companies including Alibaba, NIVIDIA, and Arm. SoftBank also gained notoriety for investing heavily in Adam Neumann’s failed co-working startup WeWork.

In recent years, SoftBank has been increasingly focused on investment opportunities to grow its AI capabilities. They have been particularly keen on investing in AI innovation in the United States. In January 2025, the Stargate Project was announced to invest $500 billion in building new AI infrastructure in the United States, with SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI as the main investors. In February 2025, SoftBank and OpenAI announced the establishment of a joint venture to develop Cristal Intelligence, an enterprise AI platform with advanced capabilities.

There are many potential synergies between Ampere Computing and the other technology companies in SoftBank’s portfolio. This could complement the company’s design strengths and open the door to future growth opportunities.

SoftBank’s aspirations to get ahead in the AI race have been funded by billions of dollars in debt. At the end of March 2025, SoftBank announced that it was leading a $40 billion investment in OpenAI. Of this $40 billion, $10 billion is borrowed from a syndicate of lenders including Mizuho Bank and other financial institutions.