Japan's SoftBank Group has bought artificial intelligence chipmaker Graphcore for an undisclosed sum, ending long-running speculation over the company's future.
U.K. chip company Graphcore has been formally acquired by Japan's SoftBank.
The Japanese stock market has been surging this year, with the Nikkei 225 index up more than 22%. These are gains comparable to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100.
Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group has recently talked with banks about borrowing money to invest up to $10 billion in energy-related projects, The Information reported on Thursday.
SoftBank shares closed at a record high of 11,190.00 Japanese yen on Thursday, eclipsing the previous intraday high of 11,000 yen reached on Feb. 15, 2000. The Japanese giant has been given a boost by the public market success of British chip designer Arm, in which it has a majority stake.
SoftBank shares climbed to an all-time high on Wednesday, a sign of renewed confidence in the storied tech firm amid booming investor interest in artificial intelligence after founder and CEO Masayoshi Son unveiled plans to make aggressive moves in the sector and invest heavily in AI and chip companies.
SoftBank on Friday announced plans to issue euro and dollar-denominated bonds as it looks to pay down debt and focus its investments on artificial intelligence. The huge Japanese holding company said it will issue around $900 million in U.S. dollar-denominated bonds in two tranches, and 900 million euros ($962.8 million) worth of bonds, also in two tranches.
Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group has launched a joint venture with Tempus AI that aims to analyse personal medical data with artificial intelligence (AI) to come up with treatment recommendations.
Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund 2 is investing between $10 million and $20 million in U.S. search startup Perplexity AI at a valuation of $3 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
Shareholder support for the reappointment of SoftBank Group Chief Executive Masayoshi Son has fallen to 79.22% from 95.93% a year ago after proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommended against his reappointment, a stock market filing showed on Tuesday.
Ten years from now, artificial intelligence (AI) will be 10,000 times smarter than humans, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son reportedly said Friday (June 21).
The chip-design company is likely to be at the heart of Masayoshi Son's efforts to dominate the next wave of artificial intelligence.