Contrary Research Rundown #128
SoftBank’s push to control AI's fundamental infrastructure, plus new memos on xAI, Semgrep, Built, and more
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Research Rundown
This week, SoftBank announced that it will be acquiring Ampere Computing, a startup that designs Arm-based server chips, for $6.5 billion. However, this isn’t just another tech acquisition — it’s part of Masayoshi Son's deliberate strategy to control AI's fundamental infrastructure. By securing Ampere's ARM-based technology and its 1,000 semiconductor engineers, SoftBank has solidified its position at every critical layer of the AI stack.
The acquisition aligns with Masa’s long-term investment thesis on artificial intelligence and builds on SoftBank’s 90% stake in ARM Holdings, its acquisition of AI chip designer Graphcore last year, and a $500 billion partnership with OpenAI for the Stargate project. However, SoftBank isn’t just investing in AI — it’s positioning itself as the backbone of the industry, from silicon to software.
By securing ARM, it dominates the fundamental IP behind AI chips. With Graphcore, it gains cutting-edge acceleration hardware. Through OpenAI, it has access to the most advanced AI models. SoftBank is vertically integrating the AI ecosystem, ensuring that the future of artificial intelligence runs on its infrastructure and capturing the means of AI production creating dependencies that competitors cannot easily circumvent.
In a statement about the acquisition, Masa said "Ampere's expertise in semiconductors and high-performance computing will help accelerate this vision, and deepens our commitment to AI innovation in the United States." This statement — albeit quite measured — indicates his ambition to make SoftBank a serious component of global AI development.
By controlling ARM architecture, which increasingly powers everything from mobile devices to data center servers, while simultaneously investing in specialized chips built on that architecture, SoftBank aims to create a self-reinforcing ecosystem. Every Ampere chip drives royalties to ARM, funding further R&D that widens the gap with competitors. Meanwhile, the partnership with OpenAI ensures SoftBank's hardware designs will be optimized for the world's most advanced AI models.
This acquisition reinforces the shift toward ARM in data centers, as hyperscalers like Amazon and Microsoft develop custom ARM chips, challenging x86’s dominance. Intel, once the leader in server CPUs, now faces mounting competition as ARM designs prove better suited for AI and cloud workloads.
Amid this transition, Masa Son’s endgame is clear: while the world fixates on AI breakthroughs, SoftBank is methodically acquiring ownership of the invisible infrastructure that makes those capabilities possible. This isn’t just about investing in AI — it’s about controlling the foundation on which the entire industry is built.
By offering an open-source AI model called Grok that is intended to deliver accurate real-time responses, xAI addresses the needs of businesses and consumers seeking efficient, accurate, and transparent foundational model solutions. To learn more, read our full memo here and check out some open roles below:
AI Engineer (Grok Personalization) - San Francisco & Palo Alto, CA
Senior Frontend Engineer (Autonomous Agents) - San Francisco & Palo Alto, CA
Semgrep is an application security platform that helps technology companies secure their applications at the development stage. To learn more, read our full memo here and check out some open roles below:
Senior Software Engineer (Infrastructure/Data Platforms) - San Francisco/New York/Boston/Denver
Head of Design - San Francisco, CA
By providing a platform for collaboration that targets pain points in the construction process through increased transparency and efficiency, Built’s goal is to help reduce construction loan risk and increase loan profitability, serving as a partner to those across the construction value chain. To learn more, read our full memo here and check out some open roles below:
Lead Product Manager, Data - Remote (US)
Senior Data Engineer - Remote (US)
Cedar combines data from health systems and insurers to provide patients with a concise and easy-to-understand billing experience. To learn more, read our full memo here and check out some open roles below:
Machine Learning Engineer III - Remote (US)
VP, Product - New York, NY
Collective Health provides a health benefits platform designed to simplify and improve the management of employee healthcare. To learn more, read our full memo here and check out some open roles below:
Senior Data Product Manager - San Francisco, CA, Lehi, UT, or Plano, TX
Senior Staff Solutions Architect - San Francisco, CA, Lehi, UT, or Plano, TX
Check out some standout roles from this week.
Rippling | San Francisco, CA or New York, NY - Director of Engineering (Machine Learning and AI), Head of Infrastructure Engineering, Senior Backend Engineer (Time Products), Senior Forward Deployed Engineer
Gong | Tel Aviv, Israel - Senior DevOps Engineer, Senior Frontend Developer, Senior Backend Engineer, Senior Product Designer, Product Security Architect
Benchling | San Francisco, CA - Systems Engineer, Security Compliance Analyst, Security Engineer
TerraFirma | Austin, TX - Full Stack Application Software Engineer, Lead Engineer (Signal Processing), Robotics Perception Engineer, Robotics Software Engineer, Video Game Developer (UI/UX, Computer Graphics), Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Engineer
Google has agreed to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion, its biggest deal ever, to boost its cloud security offerings and better compete with Microsoft and Amazon.
Next Insurance, valued at $2.5 billion in 2023, has been acquired by Munich Re for $2.6 billion.
Rex Woodbury, Managing Partner at Daybreak Ventures, published 10 Charts That Capture How the World Is Changing. One chart showed how AI companies are achieving incredible revenue per employee, with Midjourney generating $4.1M per employee and Cursor bringing in $3.3M per employee.
Anthropic has expanded Claude's capabilities to now include web search, with each response including inline citations so users can verify the sources.
Brian Potter, in his Substack “Construction Physics”, argued that while Boom Supersonic has shown it can build and fly a supersonic jet, it hasn’t necessarily de-risked the technical challenges of building a full-scale supersonic airliner.
At NVIDIA GTC, Yann Lecunn said he’s “more interested in next-gen model architectures, that should be able to do 4 things: understand physical world, have persistent memory and ultimately be more capable to plan and reason.”
Tech Buzz China published an in-depth analysis of the current state of humanoid robotics, particularly in China, highlighting the significant technical and economic hurdles that must be overcome before they can achieve mass adoption.
Stephen Wolfram explores the history and progress of engineering and innovation within the Game of Life cellular automaton over the past half-century, examining the patterns, structures, and techniques that have been discovered and constructed during this time.
A recent book review of All Things Are Full of Gods: The Mysteries of Mind and Life by philosopher David Hart talks about how, as language and meaning become increasingly quantified and predictable through AI systems, the immeasurable and unpredictable qualities of human existence that give life meaning may be lost.
Tesla is designing and perfecting its factories just as meticulously as it designs its cars, treating the manufacturing process as a product in itself.
Harvard Business School published a paper discussing the value of open-source software. Over $4 billion has been invested in open-source which has generated $8.8 trillion — in other words, open-source software generates $2,000 of value for every $1 invested.
Crusoe, a startup building data centers, struck a deal with investment firm Engine No. 1 to secure 4.5GW of power for its data centers via gas turbines, which will be available by 2027.
Rippling sued Deel for alleged corporate espionage and used a honeypot strategy to catch the alleged Deel spy.
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