Latest news with #SoftBank-backed
Mint
6 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
Softbank's biggest bet: Masayoshi Son plans trillion-dollar AI hub in Arizona. Details here
SoftBank Group's founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to team up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to build a trillion-dollar industrial complex in Arizona for manufacturing robots and artificial intelligence. The billionaire aims to build a version of the vast manufacturing hub in China's Shenzhen that would bring back high-tech manufacturing to the US, according to sources known to Bloomberg. The park may comprise production lines for AI-powered industrial robots. Codenamed 'Project Crystal Land', the Arizona complex represents the 67-year-old SoftBank chief's most ambitious attempt in a career that's spanned numerous bet-the-house bids, thousands-fold returns and billions of dollars in losses, said Bloomberg. SoftBank officials are expecting the Taiwanese maker of Nvidia Corp's advanced AI chips to play a prominent role in the project, although the exact plan is not clear. TSMC already plans to invest $165 billion in the US and has started mass production at its first Arizona factory. It is also not clear whether TSMC would be interested, the news report suggests. SoftBank officials have been in touch with federal and state government officials to discuss possible tax breaks for companies building factories or otherwise investing in the industrial park. Son has compiled a list of SoftBank Vision Fund portfolio companies that might take part in the Arizona manufacturing hub. SoftBank-backed startups working on robotics and automation technologies, such as Agile Robots SE may set up production facilities at the industrial complex, said the news agency. The plans' progress highly depends on support from the Trump administration and state officials. While the project may require as much as $1 trillion to execute, the actual scale depends on interest from big technology companies, the news report said. While exploring the Arizona project, Softbank also plans to invest as much as $30 billion into OpenAI. It's also seeding money into the Stargate venture with OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi's MGX, seeking to put hundreds of billions of dollars into data centres and related infrastructure around the world. Those outlays come as SoftBank's cash stood at $23 billion at the end of March. The Tokyo-based company also raised around $4.8 billion this month by selling its stake in T-Mobile US. The Softbank founder's multiple investments in projects that proceed in fits and starts make it difficult to determine how committed he is to any one venture, said the news agency The billionaire is often goaded by the desire to boost SoftBank's stock price and repay retail investors who've held onto the company's shares from before the dot-com boom and bust. Many investors have waited for decades for the stock to recover, said sources known to Bloomberg. If Son's primary motivation is to clear the way for AI, it may be more cost-efficient to encourage partnerships that link manufacturing expertise with that of AI engineers and specialists in fields from medicine to robotics, and incubating smaller companies, Melissa Otto, the head of research at Visible Alpha told Bloomberg, But pouring cash into data centres may help lower the cost of developing AI applications and spur broader adoption, she said. 'He's a long-term thinker, and he takes risks,' Otto said. 'It's just too early to tell.'
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
7 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
SoftBank pitches $1 trillion AI, robotics hub in US to TSMC, Trump team
By Min Jeong Lee, Mackenzie Hawkins and Anto Antony SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to team up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to realise what could be his biggest bet yet — a trillion-dollar industrial complex in Arizona to build robots and artificial intelligence. Son envisions a version of the vast manufacturing hub of China's Shenzhen that would bring back high-tech manufacturing to the US, according to people familiar with the billionaire's thinking. The park may comprise production lines for AI-powered industrial robots, they said, asking not to be named as the plan remains private. SoftBank officials are keen to have the Taiwanese maker of Nvidia Corp.'s advanced AI chips play a prominent role in the project, although it's not clear what part Son sees for TSMC, which already plans to invest $165 billion in the US and has started mass production at its first Arizona factory. Nor is it clear that TSMC would be interested. A person familiar with the chipmaker's thinking said that SoftBank's project has no bearing on TSMC's plans in Phoenix. Shares of SoftBank jumped as much as 2.3 per cent in Tokyo Friday. TSMC's stock price rose 1.9 per cent in Taipei. Codenamed 'Project Crystal Land,' the Arizona complex represents the 67-year-old SoftBank chief's most ambitious attempt in a career that's spanned numerous bet-the-house bids, thousands-fold-returns and billions of dollars in losses. Son, who's often expressed disappointment in his own legacy, has repeatedly said he means to do everything he can to hurry AI development. SoftBank officials have spoken with federal and state government officials to discuss possible tax breaks for companies building factories or otherwise investing in the industrial park, including talks with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, the people said. The Japanese billionaire is also personally sounding out interest among an array of tech companies, they said. The project has been floated to executives at South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., they said. Representatives of SoftBank, TSMC and Samsung declined to comment. A Commerce Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Son has pulled together a list of SoftBank Vision Fund portfolio companies that might take part in the Arizona manufacturing hub, the people said. SoftBank-backed startups working on robotics and automation technologies — such as Agile Robots SE — may set up production facilities at the industrial complex, they said. The plans are preliminary and feasibility hinges on support from the Trump administration and state officials. While the cost of the project as envisioned by Son may require as much as $1 trillion to execute — a sum previously reported by the Nikkei — the actual scale depends on interest from big technology companies. If successful, Son has floated building multiple cutting-edge industrial parks across the US. SoftBank is exploring the Arizona project as it also moves forward on plans to invest as much as $30 billion into OpenAI and plans a $6.5 billion acquisition of Ampere Computing LLC. It's also seeding money into the Stargate venture with OpenAI, Oracle Corp. and Abu Dhabi's MGX, seeking to ferry hundreds of billions of dollars into data centers and related infrastructure around the world. Those outlays come as SoftBank's cash stood at ¥3.4 trillion ($23 billion) at the end of March. The Tokyo-based company has since tapped its T-Mobile US Inc. stake, selling roughly a quarter of what it held in March to raise $4.8 billion this month. SoftBank also has net assets valued at ¥25.7 trillion, of which chip designer Arm Holdings Plc makes the single largest portion, allowing it to borrow billions more as needed. SoftBank's exploring project financing for Stargate data centers, a model that could be adapted to a big endeavor like Crystal Land. Common for large-scale infrastructure like oil or gas pipelines, the project finance template would allow the tech investor to raise funding on a project-by-project basis and require less money upfront. Son's restless search for growth has resulted in projects that proceed in fits and starts, making it difficult to gauge how committed he is to any one venture. The billionaire is often goaded by the desire to boost SoftBank's stock price and repay retail investors who've held onto the company's shares from before the dot-com boom and bust, people close to the SoftBank chief have said. Many investors have waited for decades for the stock to regain dot-com bubble levels — something it's flirted with only a few times since 2020. If Son's primary motivation is to clear the way for AI, it may be more cost-efficient to encourage partnerships that link manufacturing expertise with that of AI engineers and specialists in fields from medicine to robotics, and incubating smaller companies, according to Melissa Otto, head of research at Visible Alpha. But pouring cash into data centers may help lower the cost of developing AI applications and spur broader adoption, she said. 'He's a long-term thinker, and he takes risks,' Otto said. 'It's just too early to tell.'
Straits Times
11 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
SoftBank founder pitches $1.3 trillion US AI hub to TSMC, Trump team
Mr Masayoshi Son envisions a vast manufacturing hub like China's Shenzhen that would bring back high-tech manufacturing to the US. PHOTO: REUTERS TOKYO – SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to team up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to realize what could be his biggest bet yet – a trillion-dollar industrial complex in Arizona to build robots and artificial intelligence (AI). Mr Son envisions a vast manufacturing hub like China's Shenzhen that would bring back high-tech manufacturing to the United States, according to people familiar with the billionaire's thinking. The park may comprise production lines for AI-powered industrial robots, they said, asking not to be named as the plan remains private. SoftBank officials are keen to have the Taiwanese maker of Nvidia's advanced AI chips play a prominent role in the project, although it's not clear what part Mr Son sees for TSMC, which already plans to invest US$165 billion in the US and has started mass production at its first Arizona factory. Nor is it clear that TSMC would be interested. A person familiar with the chipmaker's thinking said that SoftBank's project has no bearing on TSMC's plans in Phoenix. Codenamed 'Project Crystal Land,' the Arizona complex represents the 67-year-old SoftBank chief's most ambitious attempt in a career that's spanned numerous bet-the-house bids, thousands-fold-returns and billions of dollars in losses. Mr Son, who's often expressed disappointment in his own legacy, has repeatedly said he means to do everything he can to hurry AI development. SoftBank officials have spoken with federal and state government officials to discuss possible tax breaks for companies building factories or otherwise investing in the industrial park, including talks with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, the people said. The Japanese billionaire is also personally sounding out interest among an array of tech companies, they said. The project has been floated to executives at South Korea's Samsung Electronics, they said. Representatives of SoftBank, TSMC and Samsung declined to comment. A Commerce Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr Son has pulled together a list of SoftBank Vision Fund portfolio companies that might take part in the Arizona manufacturing hub, the people said. SoftBank-backed start-ups working on robotics and automation technologies – such as Agile Robots – may set up production facilities at the industrial complex, they said. The plans are preliminary and feasibility hinges on support from the Trump administration and state officials. While the cost of the project as envisioned by Mr Son may require as much as US$1 trillion (S$1.3 trillion) to execute, the actual scale depends on interest from big technology companies. SoftBank is exploring the Arizona project as it also moves forward on plans to invest as much as US$30 billion into OpenAI and plans a US$6.5 billion acquisition of Ampere Computing. It's also seeding money into the Stargate venture with OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi's MGX, seeking to ferry hundreds of billions of dollars into data centres and related infrastructure around the world. Those outlays come as SoftBank's cash stood at 3.4 trillion yen (S$30 billion) at the end of March. The Tokyo-based company has since tapped its T-Mobile US stake, selling roughly a quarter of what it held in March to raise US$4.8 billion this month. SoftBank also has net assets valued at 25.7 trillion yen, of which chip designer Arm Holdings makes the single largest portion, allowing it to borrow billions more as needed. SoftBank's exploring project financing for Stargate data centres, a model that could be adapted to a big endeavor like Crystal Land. Common for large-scale infrastructure like oil or gas pipelines, the project finance template would allow the tech investor to raise funding on a project-by-project basis and require less money upfront. Mr Son's restless search for growth has resulted in projects that proceed in fits and starts, making it difficult to gauge how committed he is to any one venture. The billionaire is often goaded by the desire to boost SoftBank's stock price and repay retail investors who've held onto the company's shares from before the dot-com boom and bust, people close to the SoftBank chief have said. Many investors have waited for decades for the stock to regain dot-com bubble levels – something it's flirted with only a few times since 2020. If Son's primary motivation is to clear the way for AI, it may be more cost-efficient to encourage partnerships that link manufacturing expertise with that of AI engineers and specialists in fields from medicine to robotics, and incubating smaller companies, according to Melissa Otto, head of research at Visible Alpha. But pouring cash into data centres may help lower the cost of developing AI applications and spur broader adoption, she said. 'He's a long-term thinker, and he takes risks,' Ms Otto said. 'It's just too early to tell.' BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
CNBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Amazon Kuiper second satellite launch postponed by ULA due to rocket booster issue
United Launch Alliance on Monday was forced to delay the second flight carrying a batch of Amazon's Project Kuiper internet satellites because of a problem with the rocket booster. With roughly 30 minutes left in the countdown, ULA announced it was scrubbing the launch due to an issue with "an elevated purge temperature" within its Atlas V rocket's booster engine. The company said it will provide a new launch date at a later point. "Possible issue with a GN2 purge line that cannot be resolved inside the count," ULA CEO Tory Bruno said in a post on Bluesky. "We will need to stand down for today. We'll sort it and be back." The launch from Florida's Space Coast had been set for last Friday, but was rescheduled to Monday at 1:25 p.m. ET due to inclement weather. Amazon in April successfully sent up 27 Kuiper internet satellites into low Earth orbit, a region of space that's within 1,200 miles of the Earth's surface. The second voyage will send "another 27 satellites into orbit, bringing our total constellation size to 54 satellites," Amazon said in a blog post. Kuiper is the latest entrant in the burgeoning satellite internet industry, which aims to beam high-speed internet to the ground from orbit. The industry is currently dominated by Elon Musk's Space X, which operates Starlink. Other competitors include SoftBank-backed OneWeb and Viasat. Amazon is targeting a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites. The company has to meet a Federal Communications Commission deadline to launch half of its total constellation, or 1,618 satellites, by July 2026.
Time of India
10-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Byju's fire sale; Meesho's pre-IPO move
Byju's fire sale; Meesho's pre-IPO move Also in the letter: Byju's sells American assets Epic, Tynker for a song Fire sale: Epic, Byju's second-largest acquisition with a $500-million price tag in 2022, has been sold to China's TAL Education Group for $95 million. CodeHS, a computer science education company, has bought Tynker for $2.2 million in cash. Byju's had acquired it in 2021 in a cash-and-stock deal worth $200 million. Leading to the sale: In June 2024, a group of lenders from the consortium that loaned $1.2 billion to Byju's filed a petition in a US court seeking bankruptcy proceedings against its subsidiaries Epic, Tynker and Osmo, ET had reported. The court approved the sale of Epic and Tynker in an order dated May 20. Lots of litigations: Meesho converts to public entity in run-up to IPO Future proofing: Homecoming: Meesho has also applied to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to shift its domicile from the US back to India. Last month, the SoftBank-backed etailer got board approval to rename its Indian entity, Fashnear Technologies Pvt Ltd, to Meesho Pvt Ltd. Following the 'reverse flip', Meesho Ltd will become the parent company of the online marketplace. Operational metrics: Meesho recorded 34% year-on-year growth in orders, reaching 1.3 billion in nine months to December 2024. As of December 2024, the platform had 187 million unique annual transacting users, representing a 26% increase from the previous year. Sponsor ETtech Top 5 & Morning Dispatch! Why it matters: The opportunity: Reach a highly engaged audience of decision-makers. Boost your brand's visibility among the tech-savvy community. Custom sponsorship options to align with your brand's goals. What's next: Meta's Mark Zuckerberg is hiring for new AI team: Report Driving the news: Zuckerberg plans to personally hire 50 people, including a new head of AI research. The move, the report added, follows internal dissatisfaction with the reception of Meta's Llama 4 model. Meta's proposed $10 billion investment in Scale AI could also see the AI startup's founder, Alexandr Wang, joining Meta's AGI team once the deal is finalised. Tell me more: Meta has delayed the release of its flagship "Behemoth" AI model, reportedly due to concerns about its capabilities, according to The Wall Street Journal. OpenAI, Meta's closest rival in the AGI race, is also actively seeking fresh investment to accelerate its own efforts. Also Read: OpenAI's annualised revenue hits $10 billion, up from $5.5 billion in December 2024 What does this mean? The company is on track to meet its 2025 revenue target of $12.7 billion, as outlined to investors. OpenAI lost nearly $5 billion last year, but its current revenue run rate highlights just how far ahead it is of its competitors. Turf war in the clouds showers on the ground Babyscalers vs hyperscalers: Neocloud firms, often called babyscalers, are boutique operators focused on flexible GPU rentals and specialised infrastructure. Hyperscalers, in contrast, offer vast computing, storage and networking capacity at scale. The underdogs are winning on price. Renting an Nvidia DGX H100 GPU system from a hyperscaler costs around $98 an hour. A babyscaler charges just $34, roughly two-thirds cheaper. Investors' darlings: Everything Apple announced at its annual developer conference New features: At WWDC, Apple launched iOS 26 and integrated Apple Intelligence across its apps and devices. The company also introduced a new display technology, 'liquid glass'. The Phone app now offers smart screening, automatic hold, and optional call answering. Messages is getting a refresh too, with features like custom chat backgrounds. Apple is also introducing generative AI to Xcode, its developer tool, to assist with writing, testing, and debugging code. Support for third-party models, such as ChatGPT, is forthcoming. Updates availability: Troubled edtech startup Byju's is selling its US assets at steep losses, mandated by a US bankruptcy court. This and more in today's ETtech Top 5.■ Meta's AGI scramble■ Enter the Babyscalers■ Coming soon: iOS 26Embattled edtech firm Byju's is being forced to offload American assets , Epic and Tynker, at steep losses following an order from a US bankruptcy court. US lawsuit filed on April 10 against Byju's eponymous founder, Byju Raveendran, his wife Divya Gokulnath, and former company executive Anita Kishore, alleged they misappropriated $533 million from the funds lent to the group's special purpose financing vehicle, Byju's Alpha. In October last year , a Delaware Bankruptcy Court found that suspended director Riju Raveendran had violated his fiduciary responsibilities as a director of Byju's board has approved converting the company from a private limited entity to a public limited one. The move is a key step for the ecommerce firm's plans to list in the Meesho board has not cleared an IPO yet, the company said in a filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) that it 'intends to maintain readiness from a regulatory and compliance perspective to enable such an offering when deemed appropriate.'ETtech Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and Reach out to us at spotlightpartner@ to explore sponsorship Zuckerberg, CEO, MetaMeta chief Mark Zuckerberg is assembling a team to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), an AI system designed to match or surpass human capabilities, Bloomberg said on Monday that its annualised revenue reached $10 billion as of June , doubling from December 2024, driven by soaring enterprise and developer AI adoption.'Babyscalers' like Coreweave, Lambda Labs, Crusoe, and Nebius are taking on hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, offering more competitive pricing and specialised neocloud firms chip away at the dominants of the giants, Indian data centres are positioning themselves to capitalise on the shift in global cloud lower cost of power and space has made babyscalers a magnet for private equity. Blackstone, Carlyle, and BlackRock have collectively invested $11 billion into this emerging Street banks have built a growing debt market around these forms. Babyscalers tap these funds to bulk-buy Nvidia chips, then lease them out by the hour or month to AI companies and unveiled a wave of major software updates on Monday at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), introducing revamped visuals, a new naming convention, and powerful tools under its Apple Intelligence suite. iOS 26 will be available as a free update for iPhone 11 and newer models, including the 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 series.
