Arm CEO Rene Haas to lead SoftBank's international business in major AI chip strategy push

Rene Haas Takes Expanded Leadership Role at SoftBank

Rene Haas, the chief executive of UK chip designer Arm, is in line to lead a substantial portion of SoftBank's international business while maintaining his current position at Arm1

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. The expanded leadership role will grant Haas oversight of operations spanning semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and possibly robotics, according to multiple people familiar with the matter1

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. This strategic appointment positions Haas as one of the most senior lieutenants to billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, who has mobilized the Japanese conglomerate toward playing a central role in AI through power, robotics, data centers, and chip design1

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Project Izanagi: SoftBank's AI Chip Strategy to Compete with Nvidia

The primary intention behind Haas's new role is to accelerate Project Izanagi, SoftBank's AI chip strategy launched to compete with Nvidia and other established rivals in the semiconductor space2

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. Haas is expected to take a title reflecting his senior role at SoftBank Group International, though he will not run the company's Vision Fund investment vehicles or its energy business2

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. The new role will enable better coordination of SoftBank's semiconductor plans, which include recent acquisitions of chip companies such as Graphcore and Ampere—both of which Haas intends to utilize for the group's AI infrastructure ambitions1

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Arm's AGI CPU and Strategic Shift

Arm, which is roughly 90 percent owned by SoftBank and went public in 2023, recently unveiled its own AI data center chip, marking a significant shift from its traditional business model of selling blueprints to other chip designers1

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. The new AGI CPU represents the backbone of Son's semiconductor plans and is expected to drive a fivefold increase in revenue for the $158 billion company over the next five years, according to financial forecasts Haas unveiled last month1

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. Shares in Arm rallied following the announcement, climbing more than 10 percent since the chip's unveiling2

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. The launch creates a new rival not only to traditional central processing units made by Intel and AMD but also to several of Arm's own customers, including Nvidia, Google, and Amazon—though these companies have voiced support for the move1

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SoftBank's Aggressive AI Investments Under Masayoshi Son

The appointment comes as Masayoshi Son makes increasingly aggressive bets on AI investments following years when SoftBank swung between outsized gains and heavy Vision Fund losses3

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. Son believes AI is the next stage in humanity's development and has poured tens of billions into OpenAI while building up infrastructure to support the industry in the US, including the data center plan called Stargate and the world's largest gas-fired power plant in Ohio, which is being funded by Japan as part of a trade deal1

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. Having previously worked at Nvidia, Haas joined Arm in 2013 before being appointed chief executive close to 10 years later1

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. However, the new role has yet to be approved by the boards of SoftBank or Arm and could still change1

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. Both SoftBank and Arm declined to comment on the matter1

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