The NVIDIA and SoftBank tales shouldn't be left untouched, given that SoftBank's CEO, Masayoshi Son, has a history of changing his "investment stances." A prime example is how SoftBank decided to sell a stake in NVIDIA quite early, before the AI hype, and if the firm were to "hold" their respective shares, they would now be worth a whopping $178 billion. But now, SoftBank has adopted a bullish stance towards AI, as the firm is determined to bring about an AI revolution in Japan.
SoftBank is all set to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer, based on NVIDIA's B200 AI accelerators.
The firm plans to transition towards Grace Blackwell chips in the future, but for now, SoftBank plans to use the AI supercomputer to facilitate domestic AI developments, along with using NVIDIA's hardware to integrate AI into cellular services, which is indeed something innovative. NVIDIA's CEO says that this ambition will essentially "will result in an AI grid that runs across Japan", replacing conventional cellular networks.
NVIDIA's Blackwell architecture isn't only demanded by tech giants alone, but multiple countries are in the pursuit of building their computing capabilities based on Team Green's newest architecture, which is why Blackwell's demand is so explosive. Apart from SoftBank, Japan plans to invest $26 billion in domestic chip production capacity to support the country's AI ambitions, which shows that technology's importance is growing rapidly with time.
SoftBank's decision to jump onto the AI bandwagon might be a bit late, but with the key relations Son holds with NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang, both parties can certainly reach a progressive agreement, one that might put SoftBank and its subsidiaries in a position of leverage. Interestingly, Jensen "joked" about SoftBank selling its 4.9% stake in NVIDIA early, but both personalities remained optimistic about the future of AI in Japan.
