SoftBank Weighs Stake in Ampere, Valuing Chipmaker at $8 Billion
- Move would let SoftBank diversify its bet on chip industry
- Ampere is said to hold talks with other would-be investors
SoftBank Group Corp. has held talks with Ampere Computing LLC about investing in the maker of server-computer processors, an attempt to diversify its bet on the booming chip sector, according to people familiar with the situation.
Ampere has held similar talks with multiple would-be investors, but doesn’t currently need to raise money, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. SoftBank has offered hundreds of millions of dollars for a stake that would value Ampere at more than $8 billion.
Ampere is a 4-year-old startup run by former Intel Corp. executive Renee James, who is trying to break into a market dominated by her old company: microprocessors that run servers in giant data centers -- the backbone of the internet. Early investors in Santa Clara, California-based Ampere include Oracle Corp., the world’s second-largest software maker.
Representatives for Ampere and SoftBank declined to comment.