Softbank's Son pitches $1 trillion US AI hub to TSMC and Trump team, Bloomberg News reports
SoftBank Group Corp founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to team up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to build a trillion-dollar industrial complex in Arizona to build robots and artificial intelligence, Bloomberg News reported on Friday citing people familiar with the matter.
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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. 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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.
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