April 9 (Reuters) – Chip designer Arm’s CEO Rene Haas is in line to lead much of parent SoftBank Group’s international business while keeping his current role at Arm, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.
Arm declined to comment while SoftBank which is the majority-owner of Arm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. SoftBank declined to comment to the FT.
According to the FT report, Haas’s appointment aims to push forward SoftBank’s AI chip strategy, Project Izanagi, launched to compete with rivals such as U.S.-based chipmaker Nvidia.
Haas was expected to take a title reflecting his senior role at SoftBank Group International, but was not expected to run the company’s Vision Fund investment vehicles or its energy business, the report added.
The report comes as Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder of SoftBank, makes increasingly aggressive bets on AI following years when SoftBank swung between outsized gains and heavy Vision Fund losses.
Last month, Arm unveiled a new artificial intelligence data centre chip, which it said would add billions of dollars in revenue and mark a significant shift in strategy. Its shares are up more than 10% since the announcement.
(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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