SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son wants to build a $1 trillion complex in Arizona with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to produce robots and develop artificial intelligence, Bloomberg reports.
Son aims to create a huge center that will bring high-tech manufacturing to the United States. This center will produce industrial robots based on artificial intelligence. A major role in the projects will be played by TSMC, which already plans to invest $165 billion in the United States and start producing chips at a factory in Arizona.
At the same time, it is not yet clear whether such a proposal would be interesting to TSMC, since the SoftBank project has nothing to do with the Taiwanese company's plans. The complex planned by Son may be called Project Cristal Land and will become the most ambitious project of the founder of the Japanese company, who has repeatedly stated that he intends to do everything possible to accelerate the development of AI.
The Japanese billionaire is also reportedly personally exploring the interests of a number of technology companies. Among other things, the project has been proposed to executives at South Korean company Samsung Electronics Co.
In addition, Son is seeking support from the US government, including through tax breaks. Negotiations have already been held with the US Secretary of Commerce in this direction. The Japanese company is also considering other financing options, such as a project finance model, which allows raising funds in stages to reduce initial costs.
The main threat to Son’s ambitious plan now is the reality of demand for such a project and, in fact, the financial resources to implement it. SoftBank has previously tried to raise hundreds of billions of dollars for Stargate, a project to build data centers in the US with OpenAI, but progress has been slow. The new project raises even more doubts about the interest of big players.
We remind you that similar intentions of the Japanese company were discussed back in March of this year. At that time, it was reported that Masayoshi Son was planning to visit the United States to discuss his plans with the Trump administration.