Ampere Computing, Server Chip Startup, Explores Potential Sale

Server chip startup Ampere reportedly exploring a sale - SiliconANGLE

It's believed that the chipmaker is seeking a takeover offer from a "larger industry player." It's unclear if Ampere hopes to ink a deal with a fellow semiconductor supplier or one of the several tech giants that design their own processors in-house. The discussion about the potential sale reportedly began several months ago. Santa Clara, California-based Ampere develops server processors based on Arm Holding plc's ubiquitous instruction set architecture. An instruction set defines the low-level computing operations, such as multiplications and subtractions, that a chip uses to crunch data. Ampere says that its silicon can outperform comparable Advanced Micro Devices Inc. chips in some situations. Initially, Ampere based its processors on a design from Arm's Neoverse series of CPU blueprints. Last year, the company debuted a chip series called AmpereOne that features internally-designed CPU cores but still uses the Arm instruction set. The most advanced AmpereOne processor features 192 custom cores. The chip also has other selling points. Ampere has added 128 PCIe lanes that can link up to 32 graphics cards, flash storage systems and other devices to the AmpereOne. A built-in encryption feature shields the memory of the server in which the processor is installed from hacking attempts. In 2020, Oracle Corp. became the first major cloud provider to introduce instances based on Ampere silicon. Microsoft Corp. and Google LLC followed suit two years later. Last August, the Alphabet Inc. unit became the first cloud provider to adopt the chipmaker's latest AmpereOne processor series. It's unclear what price Ampere might fetch in a potential sale. In 2021, Bloomberg reported that SoftBank Group Corp. was considering to lead a funding round for the chipmaker at a $8.1 billion valuation. Ampere earlier raised more than $300 million from Oracle, Arm and other backers. Ampere's reported efforts to find a buyer may receive a boost from Aurora, an upcoming chip that it previewed in July. The processor will include circuits optimized for artificial intelligence workloads. Aurora could potentially put Ampere in a better position to capitalize on the demand for AI hardware, which would increase the company's revenue potential and thereby make it a more compelling acquisition target. Alongside AI-optimized circuits, the upcoming chip will feature HBM memory. That's a type of high-speed RAM used by graphics cards to hold the data of the neural networks they run. Aurora will also include 512 CPU cores and a new interconnect for moving data between its various circuits. Bloomberg's sources noted that Ampere could still opt to remain independent. There's reportedly a possibility that the chipmaker will decide to go public, although a stock market listing is not expected in the near future. Ampere confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering in 2022.

Datacenter chipmaker Ampere, once valued at $8 billion, explores possible sale: Report

Ampere Computing, a datacenter CPU designer backed by Oracle, is considering a sale as it faces increasing competition and uncertain prospects for an initial public offering (IPO). The company is weighing its strategic options and working with a financial adviser to explore a potential buyout, reports Bloomberg. The decision to explore a sale indicates that Ampere may not see a straightforward path to an initial public offering amid increased competition from AMD, Intel, and even Arm itself (which now offers building blocks for datacenter-grade CPUs) despite the surge in demand for AI-related machines. While an IPO in the near term does not seem like the right idea for Ampere at present, the company remains open to the possibility of an IPO in the future, according to Bloomberg. Ampere was founded in 2018 by Renee James, a former Intel executive, with a plan to develop multi-core Arm-based processors for cloud datacenters and exascalers, such as Oracle, AWS, Microsoft, and Google. In fact, Oracle has made strategic investments in Ampere, and while the company has also raised funding from other investors, including private equity firms Carlyle Group and Softbank, Oracle remains its primary financial and strategic backer. Also, Renee James is on Oracle's board of directors. Ampere has introduced Ampere Altra and Ampere Altra Max CPUs with up to 128 cores in 2020, AmpereOne processors with up to 192 cores in 2023, and then with up to 256 cores in 2024. These CPUs (except the 256-core model) have been adopted by Oracle for its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Multiple other cloud companies, including Google and Microsoft also use the processors. More recently the firm even added a 512-core AmpereOne Aurora CPU to the roadmap. However, now that AMD has 192-core x86 CPUs and Intel has 244-core x86 processors, prospects of Ampere's Arm-powered datacenter-grade CPUs do not look that bright. Still, Ampere remains confident in its long-term prospects, believing that its energy-efficient chips will offer a competitive advantage as datacenters face increasing power demands, reports Bloomberg. Ampere was valued at $8 billion following a proposed investment from SoftBank and then confidentially filed for an IPO in 2022. But now that the market conditions have changed, the company appears to be re-evaluating its strategy. Oracle, which has a significant stake in Ampere, will likely play a key role in the company's future. Oracle's cloud computing business heavily uses Ampere's CPUs, making it an important customer. Oracle could also be a potential buyer for Ampere. However, given the fact that in the past it abandoned the development of proprietary Sun UltraSPARC processors (after it took over Sun Microsystems in 2009 - 2010) and favored industry-standard Intel Xeon, it does not look like it is interested in developing CPUs in-house. While Ampere's Arm-based Altra offerings seem to be more competitive than UltraSPARC processors were back in 2010, Oracle might prefer to keep away from CPU development to maintain its relationships with AMD, Intel, and Nvidia, which products power some of its most sophisticated AI and HPC instances. Just last week Oracle announced a Zettascale cluster for AI comprising of 131,072 Nvidia B200 (Blackwell-based) GPUs that can offer performance of around 2.4 FP4 ZettaFLOPS.