SoftBank Group agreed to acquire Ampere Computing, a Santa Clara designer of Arm-based data center processors, for $6.5 billion in cash. Lead investors Oracle and Carlyle are selling their stakes, and Ampere will become a wholly owned subsidiary that keeps its name and headquarters. The deal required antitrust and CFIUS clearance. The deal SoftBank Group bought all equity interests in Ampere Computing Holdings LLC through its subsidiary Silver Bands 6 (US) Corp. Before the deal, voting rights were split among Carlyle Group with 59.65%, Oracle with 32.27% and an Arm affiliate with 8.08%, according to M&A Online, which drew on SoftBank's Japanese disclosure. Carlyle and Oracle sold their positions as part of the transaction. SoftBank Group shares rose 1.95% on March 21, 2025, the trading day after the announcement. About Ampere Ampere was founded in 2017 by CEO Renée James and a group of her former Intel colleagues. It designs Arm-architecture server processors using its own custom cores, and had about 1,000 semiconductor engineers when the deal was announced. Its roadmap at the time included AmpereOne chips with up to 256 cores made on TSMC's 3-nanometer process. Under SoftBank, Ampere operates separately from Arm. Approvals and timeline In early July 2025 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a second request, opening an in-depth review of the deal. The FTC ended its review early, on November 12, 2025, according to a notice on its website reported by Bloomberg. SoftBank completed the acquisition on November 25, 2025, U.S. time, and announced it the next day. Ampere became a wholly owned subsidiary, and its results are consolidated into SoftBank Group's accounts from the acquisition date. SoftBank said at completion that the effect on its consolidated results was still under review.
