Startup Ampere Computing, founded by a native of Intel, is looking for new owners

In 2016, Renee James, then president of Intel, left the company and founded the startup Ampere Computing, which specializes in the development of computing accelerators. Now, if rumors are to be believed, this company is looking for a strategic investor and a new owner in one person.

As Bloomberg reports, citing informed sources, Ampere management would like to see one of the major players in the information technology market as the new owner of the business. It was initially assumed that the startup would eventually raise capital on the stock market through an IPO. The artificial intelligence boom, which theoretically should increase interest in Ampere’s developments, actually increases competition in the segment, making it more difficult for relatively young companies to survive.

Since nothing has been finalized in this regard, Ampere may remain independent, but then go for an IPO if favorable conditions exist. In 2021, the startup’s capitalization was estimated at $8 billion; the Japanese corporation SoftBank and the Oracle DBMS developer are considered investors in its assets. Chips developed by Ampere are used to accelerate computing by Microsoft and Google, as well as Oracle. The latter’s cloud systems based on Ampere accelerators are operated by Uber Technologies, which provides information services to the service of the same name for transporting passengers in passenger cars. Ampere management is betting on the Arm architecture and the high energy efficiency of its accelerators. Its modern solutions have up to 500 computing cores and are produced by the Taiwanese company TSMC using advanced lithographic technologies. This year, the total value of transactions involving assets in the semiconductor business has more than doubled to $60 billion, according to Bloomberg.