Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thank you, Mr. Air, a netizen of CTOnews.com, for your clue delivery! CTOnews.com, September 17 (Xinhua) Softbank Corp. is considering seeking deals in the AI sector, including a potential investment in OpenAI, after chip designer Arm went public on a massive scale and brought billions of dollars to Softbank Corp. CEO son, the Financial Times reported.

The newspaper quoted two sources "familiar with son's thinking" as saying that son was seeking to invest tens of billions of dollars in AI, and that Microsoft-backed OpenAI was one of several deal options that Softbank Corp. was considering. In addition, Softbank Corp. also hopes to establish an extensive strategic partnership with OpenAI.

The source added that Softbank Corp. was studying a range of alternatives to OpenAI, including heavy investment in its direct competitors-Softbank Corp. is said to have been in contact with Graphcore, a UK-based AI chipmaker.

However, all three companies responded to the rumors other than affirmative. SoftBank and OpenAI said they "declined to comment", while Graphcore directly denied "receiving an offer from Softbank Corp.".

Analysts said that Arm's initial public offering on Thursday raised nearly $5 billion (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 36.4 billion yuan), which will expand Softbank Corp. 's capital to $65 billion (currently about 473.2 billion yuan), including Softbank Corp. 's own cash and using his remaining 90 per cent stake in Arm as collateral for loans.

CTOnews.com previously reported that Softbank Corp. announced in a press release in August this year that Softbank Corp. Group's "Japanese version of ChatGPT" had been developed smoothly, and the company is currently undergoing AI training process, and is expected to launch its own "Japanese version of ChatGPT" AI products next year.

Runichi Miyagawa, CEO of Softbank Corp. Group's telecommunications department, claimed that in order to achieve "this grand goal", Softbank Corp. will set up a wholly-owned subsidiary SB Intuitions, which will focus on training generative AI. In addition, Softbank Corp. also plans to cooperate with Microsoft to speed up the process of technology landing and provide Japanese enterprises with a series of credible generative AI services.

However, according to the financial results released by Softbank Corp. Group for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 (April-June 2023), net sales in that quarter were 1.56 trillion yen (currently about 76.908 billion yuan), down 0.9 per cent from a year earlier. Softbank Corp. lost 699 billion yen (currently about 34.461 billion yuan) on his investment in the quarter, compared with a loss of 2.8344 trillion yen (currently about 139.736 billion yuan) in the same period last year.

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