Japan’s SoftBank explores homegrown AI servers with Nvidia, Foxconn, Nikkei reports

May 8 (Reuters) – SoftBank Corp has begun discussions with U.S. chip giant Nvidia and Taiwanese ​contract manufacturer Foxconn as ‌it weighs plans to build “made-in-Japan” artificial intelligence servers, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Friday.

The Japanese telecom company wants ‌to ​build a production system ⁠by initially assembling ⁠externally sourced components by the end of the decade, before eventually taking charge of the ​entire server manufacturing process, Nikkei added.

The unit will focus on ⁠high-performance servers capable ⁠of running advanced graphics ​processing units at high speeds, the ​report also said.

The project will be ‌part of SoftBank’s medium-term management plan, which, according to Nikkei, could be announced as soon ⁠as Monday.

The development comes after Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank Group poured in more than $30 ⁠billion ‌in investments in OpenAI ⁠so far, for about ​an ‌11% stake, in an “all-in” bet ​that it ⁠will emerge as a winner in the battle among developers of large language models.

(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by ​Diti Pujara)