SoftBank’s billionaire CEO and co-founder Masayoshi Son plans to lift $100 billion for an AI chip manufacturing project to compete with NVIDIA.

Son named the brand new company after the Japanese god of creation and life, Izanagi. Son said he desires to be the architect of “what the longer term of humanity will and may seem like” and that the “AI revolution” is something SoftBank desires to play a number one role in.

AI processing relies on huge quantities of chips and there are significant supply constraints, with market leader NVIDIA struggling to maintain up with demand. SoftBank owns 90% of British chipmaker Arm and plans to make use of that in its push into AI chip manufacturing.

The $100 billion investment could see $30 billion come from SoftBank and the remainder from unnamed investors within the Middle East. The US had previously banned NVIDIA from supplying some firms within the Middle East because of perceived Chinese influence within the region.

The last three letters in Project Izanagi’s name are also a nod to the pursuit of AGI. Son said that based on Arm’s development roadmap, he believes AI will ultimately have “a minimum of 10,000 times the entire wisdom of the world.”

Once AI superintelligence is achieved, Son says it is going to be “the birth of a life form far beyond humanity” and that it is going to “solve problems that humanity cannot solve.” Son believes progress toward this anticipated AI utopia must be accelerated by producing more AI chips.

A “happier, more connected world” sounds great, and investors like the thought too. Shares of SoftBank have gained about 30% previously two weeks, while shares of Arm have gained greater than 80%.

SoftBank declined to sell its shares in Arm to NVIDIA in 2022, which now appears to be a sensible decision as demand for chips continues to grow. Son had previously discussed possible collaboration with Sam Altman on his trillion-dollar chip project, but there was no word on specific plans for collaboration.

Will the superintelligent, self-reproducing AIs Son imagines bring concerning the utopian future he envisions, or the tip of our species that AI doomsday prophets expect? Either way, Son’s Izanagi project will get us there faster.


This article was originally published at dailyai.com