SoftBank will reportedly invest nearly $1 billion in promoting artificial intelligence using Nvidia chips

A sign at a SoftBank Corporation store in the Ginza district of Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023.

Kiyoshi Ohta Bloomberg

Japan technology group Softbank is looking to build a “world-class” Japanese-specific generative artificial intelligence model and plans to invest $960 million over the next two years to improve its computing facilities, according to the company. Nikkei reports.

Training large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s Chat GPT requires advanced graphics processing units, which SoftBank plans to buy from the US chip giant. NvidiaNikkei reported the news on Monday citing anonymous sources.

The report said SoftBank’s investment in computing infrastructure reached 20 billion yen last year, and it is expected to spend 150 billion yen (about US$960 million) in 2024 and 2025.

“Nikkei” added that this latest investment is considered the largest of its kind by a Japanese company and once completed, SoftBank could have the most powerful computing power in the country.

According to another report by Nikkei Asia, Japan lacks private companies with the high-performance supercomputers needed to build LLMs, despite growing interest in the technology.

SoftBank’s investment reports that could change that and give Japan a strong domestic player in its generative artificial intelligence field as international players try to enter the market.

Last week, OpenAI opened its first office in Tokyo as part of its global expansion plan. At the same time, Microsoft will invest 2.9 billion US dollars in more than two years to enhance the country’s cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

SoftBank expects to complete its first model in fiscal year 2024, which will have 390 billion parameters, demonstrating the complexity of LLM. According to Nikkei, the company will begin developing high-performance models with 1 trillion parameters by 2025.

Japan Telecom and other local companies NTT have announced plans to offer LL.M. degrees this fiscal year. NTT said it will invest 8 trillion yen ($51.7 billion) over the next five years in growth areas such as data centers and artificial intelligence.

According to Statista Market Insights, Japan’s artificial intelligence market is expected to grow to nearly US$13 billion by 2030, a 17-fold increase over 2023.

SoftBank’s stock price is trending positively as the company’s growth shifts focus to artificial intelligence, up nearly 20% year-over-year. It’s a major shareholder in the chip company arm, which has experienced sales growth in the artificial intelligence boom.

SoftBank has said it is committed to building artificial intelligence data centers across Japan, having recently joined a project to build a 65 billion yen center in Hokkaido.

Read Nikkei Asia’s full report.