SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to team up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to realize what could be his biggest bet yet — a trillion-dollar industrial complex in Arizona to build robots and artificial intelligence.
Son envisions a version of the vast manufacturing hub of China’s Shenzhen that would bring back high-tech manufacturing to the U.S., according to people familiar with the billionaire’s thinking. The park may comprise production lines for AI-powered industrial robots, they said, asking not to be named as the plan remains private.
SoftBank officials are keen to have the Taiwanese maker of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips play a prominent role in the project, although it’s not clear what part Son sees for TSMC, which already plans to invest $165 billion in the U.S. and has started mass production at its first Arizona factory. Nor is it clear that TSMC would be interested. A person familiar with the chipmaker’s thinking said that SoftBank’s project has no bearing on TSMC’s plans in Phoenix.
