SoftBank is set to acquire Foxconn's Ohio-based electric vehicle plant. This acquisition is a strategic move to accelerate SoftBank's $500 billion Stargate data centre project, in collaboration with OpenAI and Oracle. The project aims to build a network of AI data centres. SoftBank will have financial responsibility and OpenAI will have operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman.
The Ohio plant may be repurposed to host a data centre as part of the Stargate initiative. The Stargate project intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. SoftBank will begin deploying $100 billion immediately. The project also has the support of Microsoft and NVIDIA.
CFO Yoshimitsu Goto expects Stargate will meet its target of spending around $500 billion on data centre builds within five years. He also predicted that half of all new server chips shipped to hyperscalers in 2025 will use its architecture.
