SoftBank's Japanese telecom unit will receive the first shipment of Nvidia's new 'Blackwell' chip for supercomputers. Masayoshi Son, head of the multinational company, said the decision was taken to advance his company's business ventures in the artificial intelligence sector.
SoftBank also plans to use Nvidia's Grace Blackwell chip for supercomputers. An AI event was held last Wednesday in Tokyo, Japan. SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son and Nvidia CEO were present at the event.
Masayoshi Son is pushing to align his vast business empire with the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. He took a stake in OpenAI and acquired chip startup 'Graphcore'. However, due to some years of instability, he had to cut back on business expenses.
The two businessmen discussed at this event. Whereas Jensen Huang recalls that Masayoshi Son once offered to lend him money to buy Nvidia, as the market value of Nvidia was not properly valued at that time.
Jensen Huang joked that Son wanted to lend money to buy Nvidia. But I now regret not taking it.
Son said the offer comes a month after it bought chip designer Arm. Then his
Japanese billionaire Son sold shares in Nvidia and then tried to sell Arm to the Nvidia company, which failed due to regulatory hurdles.
Nvidia was the most popular for designing chips for gaming. Nvidia has become one of the world's most valuable companies for artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
Son is known as a visionary investor. He invests in startups and Alibaba companies. But he has faced financial losses despite investing in some companies like WeWork.
As telecom companies around the world look for new growth, SoftBank has partnered with Nvidia on a network pilot project. In this project, both 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) services will be operated together.
Noting the similarities between the two businessmen, Son said, 'We see the same vision in each other, just as a wolf's scent attracts a wolf.'
References: Reuters
