SoftBank’s $6.5 billion acquisition of Ampere Computing is a defining moment in the battle for the future of data centers, signaling a decisive push toward ARM-based computing in an industry long dominated by x86 processors. The Japanese conglomerate’s latest investment underscores its belief that technology originally developed for smartphones will now take center stage in powering artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Founded in 2017 by Renée James, a former Intel executive, Ampere Computing set out to challenge Intel and AMD’s x86 hegemony in the data center. The company’s chips are built on ARM architecture, a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) design that prioritizes power efficiency and scalability over the more complex, power-hungry x86 architecture. SoftBan
SoftBank’s Ampere Investment to Challenge Intel and AMD’s x86 Dominance
- By Anshika Mathews
- Published on
Running Ampere independently will allow them to keep licensing its fundamental designs while having flexibility to work on SoftBank's larger AI goals.
