The platform might be operated by SB Intuitions, a SoftBank subsidiary centered on AI mannequin improvement
In sum – what you’ll want to know:
World’s largest DGX SuperPOD – SoftBank now operates the most important NVIDIA Blackwell GPU deployment globally, with over 4,000 items powering its AI platform.
13.7 exaflops for Japanese AI – The brand new system will assist develop superior Japanese-language LLMs, together with the business Sarashina mini mannequin.
Licensed AI infrastructure – Japan’s METI licensed SoftBank’s platform for nationwide provide assurance below its financial safety framework.
Japanese operator SoftBank has deployed what it claims to be the world’s largest Nvidia DGX SuperPOD that includes greater than 4,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, increasing its complete AI infrastructure to over 10,000 GPUs and delivering 13.7 exaflops of computing energy.
In a launch, the Asian agency famous that this new AI computing platform is powered by DGX B200 methods and makes use of Nvidia’s Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking, together with the Nvidia AI Enterprise software program suite. The deployment marks a serious milestone in SoftBank’s technique to speed up home AI improvement, significantly for big language fashions (LLMs) tailor-made to Japanese language use.
The platform might be operated by SB Intuitions, a SoftBank subsidiary centered on AI mannequin improvement. After constructing LLMs with roughly 460 billion parameters final 12 months, SB Intuitions now plans to launch a 70-billion-parameter business mannequin, Sarashina mini, by March 2026. The corporate intends to make use of the upgraded infrastructure to coach extra superior fashions and speed up innovation in generative AI.
SoftBank started constructing its DGX SuperPOD infrastructure in 2023 with Nvidia Ampere GPUs, and expanded once more in 2024 with Hopper-based methods. The latest Blackwell-based improve represents its strongest and scalable construct so far.
The platform was designated below Japan’s “Cloud Program” by METI as a essential a part of nationwide financial safety infrastructure. Along with inner use, SoftBank will supply entry to the system for enterprises and analysis establishments in Japan, supporting broader AI improvement throughout the nation.
SoftBank Group is anticipating to play a dominant position within the subsequent frontier of synthetic intelligence (AI) improvement.
The group’s CEO Masayoshi Son lately advised shareholders on the firm’s annual assembly that SoftBank intends to change into the world’s main platform supplier for what he described as “synthetic tremendous intelligence” inside the subsequent decade. “We need to change into the organizer of the trade within the synthetic tremendous intelligence period,” he mentioned.
Son in contrast the chance in superintelligent AI to the “winner takes all” impact seen in different tech sectors over the previous 20 years. He pointed to how Microsoft, Amazon and Google have dominated private computing software program, e-commerce, and on-line search respectively.
Synthetic tremendous intelligence (ASI) is a hypothetical software-based AI system with an mental scope past human intelligence. On the most basic stage, this superintelligent AI has cutting-edge cognitive features and extremely developed considering expertise extra superior than any human.
Final month, in a separate investor briefing, the manager mentioned SoftBank is investing in a strategic construction centered on OpenAI and Arm to maneuver in the direction of synthetic tremendous intelligence.
SoftBank and OpenAI — together with Oracle, Microsoft, Arm, NVIDIA, and expertise investor MGX — are concerned with the Stargate mission supported by President Donald Trump.
The Stargate initiative has an estimated long-term value of $500 billion, and an preliminary $100 billion already earmarked for early phases.
The mission is designed to span a number of places and phases, probably turning into the biggest AI infrastructure buildout in historical past. Every section will add computing capability, storage, and networking to allow extraordinarily large-scale AI coaching and inference.
In January, reviews advised that SoftBank was in talks to speculate as a lot as $25 billion into OpenAI, a transfer that might place the Japanese operator because the generative AI (gen AI) firm’s greatest monetary backer.
The Japanese firm’s direct funding into OpenAI is along with the greater than $15 billion dedicated to the Stargate mission, in line with the reviews, which said that the corporate might find yourself spending over $40 billion on its OpenAI partnership.
