The founder of the Japanese giant SoftBank Masayoshi Son intends to cooperate with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to build a large-scale technological complex worth 1 trillion dollars in Arizona. The object is planned for the production of robotics and the development of artificial intelligence, informs Bloomberg.
Son’s idea is to create a large high-tech center that would transfer part of the production to the United States. The key element of this project should be the production of industrial robots using AI. An important role in the implementation of the idea can be played by TSMC, which has already announced its intention to invest 165 billion dollars in the United States and start the production of chips at its American plant.
However, it is currently unknown whether TSMC itself is interested in this initiative, since it is not directly related to the current plans of the Taiwanese company. The project may be called Project Cristal Land and is considered the largest initiative of Son, who has repeatedly stated his desire to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence.
It is also reported that the billionaire is personally negotiating with representatives of a number of leading technology companies, in particular, he proposed the project to the management of the South Korean Samsung Electronics Co.
At the same time, Son is looking for support from the US government, particularly in terms of tax benefits. It is known that negotiations have already taken place with the US Secretary of Commerce. To finance the project, the project finance model is being considered, which provides for the gradual raising of funds and allows to reduce initial costs.
Despite the ambition of the idea, the real demand for such an initiative, as well as the availability of sufficient financial resources, remains a big question. It is worth reminding that earlier SoftBank already tried to attract hundreds of billions of dollars for the Stargate project — a network of data centers in the USA together with OpenAI, but its implementation is progressing slowly. In the case of a new project, there are even more doubts about the interest of the big players.
