Izanagi

History

2024: Company creation, $100 billion investment

On February 19, 2024, it became known that the founder of the Japanese telecommunications corporation SoftBank Masayoshi Son created a company for the production of specialized chips for artificial intelligence systems. Investments in a project called Izanagi are estimated at $100 billion, and new products can compete with Nvidia GPU-based solutions.

Several possible scenarios for financing the initiative are being considered. In one of them, $30 billion will be allocated from SoftBank. As of December 31, 2023, SoftBank had approximately $41 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Son expects to receive another $70 billion to form a new enterprise from stakeholders in the Middle East.

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The Izanagi project assumes that the architecture of Arm, part of SoftBank, will form the basis of the new AI accelerators. This will ensure high energy efficiency. The initiative as of February 2024 is being discussed with Arm management, but a specific work plan has not been disclosed.

Masayoshi Son has repeatedly stated the enormous potential of AI. According to him, the appearance of machines that are smarter than people will make the world safer and more cheerful. The SoftBank founder is considering various strategies aimed at expanding Arm's presence in the AI segment. Previously, Son discussed a possible partnership with the creator of OpenAISem Altman, but the new Izanagi project, as noted, will be implemented separately. If production is successfully established, the Izanagi initiative will be one of the largest investments in AI and the development of specialized accelerators as of early 2024. The demand for such products is expected to grow against the background of the development of generative AI services.^[1]

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