Sun Zhengyi sets up a billion dollar chip giant to challenge Nvidia

Source: Semiconductor Industry Observation

    According to insiders, SoftBank founder Sun Zhengyi is seeking up to $100 billion in funding to fund a chip joint venture to compete with Nvidia and supply semiconductors necessary for artificial intelligence.

    The project is codenamed "Izanagi", marking the billionaire‘s next major attempt at SoftBank‘s significant reduction in startup investments. Insiders say that Sun Zhengyi envisions creating a company that can complement the chip design department Arm and enable the billionaire to build an artificial intelligence chip giant. As the discussion is still in private, anonymity is requested. One of the insiders stated that in one scenario under consideration, SoftBank will provide $30 billion, of which $70 billion may come from Middle Eastern institutions.

    If he succeeds, the chip project will become one of the largest investments in the field of artificial intelligence since the emergence of ChatGPT, overshadowing Microsoft‘s recent investment of over $10 billion in OpenAI. According to insiders, Sun Zhengyi named the project after the Japanese god of creation and life, Izanagi, in part because it includes the abbreviation for Artificial General Intelligence. Sun Zhengyi has been predicting the arrival of universal artificial intelligence in his speeches for many years, stating that a world filled with machines smarter than humans will be safer, healthier, and happier.

    According to insiders, the details of how the project will be funded or where the funds will be spent have not been determined yet, and the project may further develop. They stated that Sun Zhengyi is constantly trying various investment ideas and strategies to strengthen Arm‘s influence in the artificial intelligence market, and has been exploring different types of next-generation chips. It is currently unclear which company or company will play a core role in developing the technology required to challenge Nvidia, which is currently the leader in the field of high-end artificial intelligence accelerators.

    Representatives from SoftBank and Arm declined to comment.

   After facing a series of serious setbacks in venture capital, Sun Zhengyi focused his energy on Arm. According to insiders, the entrepreneur saw an opportunity to create a monster company at the same level as the seven major stocks. As of December 31st, SoftBank has 6.2 trillion yen (41 billion US dollars) in cash and cash equivalents, thanks to the rebound in global stock markets. Its balance sheet has been boosted by unexpected revenue from T-Mobile US Inc. stock (valued at nearly $8 billion) and the company‘s 90% stake in Arm. In just the past week, Arm‘s market value has increased by approximately $50 billion.

    According to insiders, although Sun Zhengyi and Sam Altman from OpenAI have held talks on collaboration and financing in the semiconductor manufacturing field, the current form of Izanagi and Altman‘s ambitions are separate. A person familiar with the matter said that Sun Zhengyi had attempted to invest in another company that developed basic artificial intelligence models and requested the company‘s leaders to help develop the chip business, but they refused.

    In a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Haas was asked about his role in helping Sun Zhengyi achieve his desire for artificial intelligence. Hass said, "When you think of general artificial intelligence and the conditions needed to achieve this goal in computing, energy efficiency, and energy, these are important areas that we need to participate in and focus on." As the CEO of Arm, not a SoftBank director.

    The Izanagi Plan directly led by Sun Zhengyi. This billionaire had carefully planned the creation of the SoftBank Vision Fund, which was originally a $100 billion project supported by the Middle East and represented one of the world‘s largest technology investment pools. But in the past 18 months, investment in the department has slowed down to a small portion of its previous scale.