SoftBank Group has announced its intention to acquire Ampere Computing, a leading chip designer founded by former Intel executive Renee James, in an all-cash deal valued at $6.5 billion. This strategic move aims to expand SoftBank’s investment in AI infrastructure.

Following the acquisition, Ampere will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank, with the deal expected to close in the second half of 2025.

Carlyle and Oracle, the lead investors in Ampere, will divest their shares in the Santa Clara, California-based startup. According to SoftBank’s statement, Carlyle holds a 59.65% stake, while Oracle holds 32.27%. The startup boasts a team of 1,000 semiconductor engineers.

In 2021, SoftBank considered acquiring a minority stake in Ampere, which was valued at $8 billion at the time, as reported by Bloomberg.

SoftBank, the largest shareholder of Arm Holdings, and Ampere, which has developed a server chip based on the ARM compute platform, have a strong partnership. (SoftBank acquired Arm for $32 billion in 2016 and took it public in 2023.) Ampere’s clients include Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba, Tencent, as well as companies like HPE and Supermicro.

SoftBank believes the acquisition of Ampere will enhance its capabilities in key areas such as AI and compute, accelerating its growth initiatives. This announcement follows a series of deals made by the Japanese tech giant in recent months, including its partnership with OpenAI to develop “Cristal intelligence,” an Advanced Enterprise AI platform. Additionally, SoftBank has invested in the AI infrastructure project Stargate, which is building data centers for OpenAI across the U.S., and purchased an old Sharp factory in Japan.

Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., stated, “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.”

Ampere was founded in 2017 by James, a former Intel executive and private equity firm Carlyle veteran, who also served on the board of Oracle. Initially focusing on cloud-native computing, the company has since expanded its scope to include sustainable AI compute.

Renee James expressed her enthusiasm about the acquisition, stating, “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.”