Billionaire Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank has made a big move. The company announced it put $2 billion into Intel. This deal bought SoftBank about 2% of Intel’s total shares.
This investment instantly made SoftBank the fifth-largest shareholder in Intel. Many see it as a strong show of trust in the chip giant. Intel has been facing a tough time in the fast-growing artificial intelligence chip market.
Intel’s stock closed on Monday at $23.66 per share. SoftBank agreed to buy its shares at $23 each. After the news broke, Intel’s stock quickly jumped about 6%, hitting $25.
Earlier in 2024, Intel’s stock saw a steep drop. It fell by 60% because it struggled to break into the AI chip market. Nvidia currently leads this area. Despite the earlier fall, Intel’s price has seen a recovery of over 18% this year.
The US government is also keeping a close eye on Intel. Intel is the only American company that can make advanced chips inside the country. Recent reports suggest the government is thinking about buying shares in Intel. This move would support the nation’s tech security plans.
SoftBank, on its part, is steadily growing its reach in the chip and AI sectors. It bought Arm for $32 billion back in 2016. Today, Arm is worth nearly $150 billion. SoftBank also acquired Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion in March. The company is a key partner in Project Stargate. This project is a huge joint effort with OpenAI and Oracle. It plans to spend up to $500 billion to build AI infrastructure.
Son stated his view clearly. He said this investment shows a belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing in the US will keep growing. He added that Intel will play an important role in the global supply chain.