Japan's SoftBank explores homegrown AI servers with Nvidia, Foxconn, Nikkei reports


FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: The logo of SoftBank is displayed at a company shop in Tokyo, Japan January 28, 2025. REUTERS/Issei Kato

May 8 (Reuters) - SoftBank ⁠Corp has begun discussions with ⁠U.S. chip giant Nvidia and Taiwanese contract ‌manufacturer Foxconn as it weighs plans to build "made-in-Japan" artificial intelligence servers, the Nikkei newspaper reported on ​Friday.

The Japanese telecom company ⁠wants to build ⁠a production system by initially assembling externally sourced ⁠components ‌by the end of the decade, before eventually taking charge ⁠of the entire server manufacturing process, ​Nikkei added.

The ‌unit will focus on high-performance servers ⁠capable of ​running advanced graphics processing units at high speeds, the report also said.

The project will ⁠be part of SoftBank's ​medium-term management plan, which, according to Nikkei, could be announced as soon as Monday.

The development ⁠comes after Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank Group poured in more than $30 billion in investments in OpenAI so far, for about ​an 11% stake, in ⁠an "all-in" bet that it will emerge as ​a winner in the ‌battle among developers of large ​language models.

(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)

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