Electronics Weekly
The plan is to have prototype Izanagi processors in summer 2025 and to be shipping in volume in 2026, reports Bloomberg.
Izanagi (pictured) is Japan’s God of creation.
Central to the scheme are Arm and Graphcore which can deliver the chip designs. Arm’s move up the value chain to design more of the system is part of the plan.
At the recent court case with Qualcomm it was disclosed that Arm CEO Rene Haas had put a strategy 
document to the Arm board outlining how it could build and sell proprietary ICs.
An approach to Intel earlier this year to buy parts of the company is reported to have been part of the Izanagi plan to build a processor powerhouse to take on Nvidia.
At the same time, the hyperscalers have been approached to see if they want to come in with Izanagi with funds or technology or both. Several are pursuing programmes to develop their own AI chips.
The involvement of the hyperscalers could push the funding up into the hundreds of billions range. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son has already talked about Izanagi costing several trillion.
Son is said to have had discussions about the scheme with OpenAI boss Sam Altman and has made a tender offer to OpenAI employees to buy up to $1.5 billion worth of their shares. Softbank’s Vision Fund already owns shares in OpenAI worth $500 million.
