Ampere Computing

Ampere Computing LLC is an American fabless semiconductor company that designs Arm-based server processors for cloud data centers, selling them under the Ampere brand and, since late 2025, operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group.Ampere Computing LLC 是一家美国无晶圆厂半导体公司，设计面向云数据中心的 Arm 架构服务器处理器，以 Ampere 品牌销售，自 2025 年底起成为软银集团的全资子公司。

Renée James, who served as Intel's president from 2013 to 2016, started the company in 2017 around the former AppliedMicro server-chip team and Carlyle Group's backing, betting that dense, power-efficient Arm cores could take share from x86 in hyperscale clouds.蕾妮·詹姆斯在 2013 至 2016 年担任英特尔总裁，她于 2017 年依托原 AppliedMicro 服务器芯片团队与凯雷集团的支持创办公司，押注高密度、低功耗的 Arm 核心能从超大规模云中的 x86 手里夺取份额。

SoftBank's US$6.5 billion all-cash purchase closed in November 2025, leaving Ampere with its Santa Clara headquarters, its brand and roughly 1,000 semiconductor engineers while its results are consolidated into the Japanese group.软银以 65 亿美元全现金完成收购的时间是 2025 年 11 月。Ampere 保留圣克拉拉总部、品牌与约 1000 名半导体工程师，业绩并入这家日本集团。

History

• James left Intel in 2016 and founded Ampere the following year with Carlyle, which had bought AppliedMicro's Arm server business from MACOM, giving the startup a design team, patents and a ready architecture instead of a blank page.詹姆斯 2016 年离开英特尔，次年与凯雷一起创办 Ampere。凯雷此前从 MACOM 手中买下 AppliedMicro 的 Arm 服务器业务，这让初创公司一开始就拥有设计团队、专利与现成架构，而不是从零开始。
• The first chip, eMAG 8180, arrived in 2018 with 32 Armv8 cores, 125 watts and TSMC's 16 nm process, a deliberately modest part meant to prove that an Arm server CPU could run ordinary cloud workloads.首款芯片 eMAG 8180 于 2018 年推出，32 个 Armv8 核心、125 瓦功耗、台积电 16 纳米工艺。这是一款刻意保守的产品，目的是证明 Arm 服务器 CPU 能跑普通云负载。
• Oracle began investing in 2017 and Arm took a stake later, giving Ampere both a large customer and its instruction-set licensor as shareholders, while a 2019 software push added support for Linux distributions, Java and the CUDA host stack.甲骨文从 2017 年起投资，Arm 后来也入股，使 Ampere 同时把大客户与指令集授权方变成股东。2019 年的软件推进又补上对 Linux 发行版、Java 与 CUDA 主机栈的支持。
• Altra shipped in 2020 with 80 cores on TSMC's 7 nm node, the highest core count in an x86 or Arm server CPU at the time, and Oracle put it into its A1 cloud instances the following year, giving Ampere its first hyperscale reference customer.Altra 于 2020 年出货，采用台积电 7 纳米工艺、80 个核心，是当时 x86 与 Arm 服务器 CPU 中核心数最高的产品。甲骨文次年把它放进 A1 云实例，Ampere 由此得到第一个超大规模参考客户。
• Altra Max doubled the core count to 128 in 2021 without raising the 250-watt ceiling, and that year Bloomberg reported SoftBank had explored a minority investment at a valuation above US$8 billion, a transaction that never closed.2021 年 Altra Max 把核心数翻倍到 128 个，功耗上限仍维持 250 瓦。同年彭博社报道软银曾洽谈以超过 80 亿美元的估值进行少数股权投资，但这笔交易没有成交。
• In April 2022 Ampere filed confidentially for an IPO, a move that would have given Carlyle and Oracle a public exit, but rising interest rates shut the window and the company stayed private.2022 年 4 月，Ampere 秘密提交 IPO 申请，这本可给凯雷与甲骨文一条公开退出通道，但利率上行关上了窗口，公司继续留在私募市场。
• Customer wins came faster than the listing: Google Cloud launched its first Arm virtual machines on Altra in July 2022, Microsoft added Arm instances on Azure, and HPE put Ampere chips into a ProLiant server line.客户进展比上市更快：谷歌云 2022 年 7 月基于 Altra 推出首批 Arm 虚拟机，微软在 Azure 增加 Arm 实例，慧与则把 Ampere 芯片装进 ProLiant 服务器产品线。
• AmpereOne reached the market in May 2023 with 192 custom single-threaded cores on TSMC's 5 nm process, the first Ampere design to abandon Arm's Neoverse cores for in-house work and the basis for later cloud instances.AmpereOne 于 2023 年 5 月上市，采用台积电 5 纳米工艺、192 个自研单线程核心。这是 Ampere 首次放弃 Arm 的 Neoverse 核心改用自研设计，也成为后续云实例的基础。
• The 2024 roadmap added a 256-core AmpereOne MX on 3 nm and a 512-core Aurora design with an AI engine and HBM, while Oracle's 29% stake and mounting losses made a sale or listing look increasingly likely.2024 年的路线图加入 3 纳米 256 核的 AmpereOne MX，以及带 AI 引擎与 HBM 的 512 核 Aurora 设计。与此同时，甲骨文 29% 的持股与不断扩大的亏损让出售或上市看起来越来越可能。
• SoftBank announced the US$6.5 billion all-cash purchase on 19 March 2025, with Carlyle, Oracle and Arm selling their stakes and SoftBank buying through Silver Bands 6, a structure that would fold Ampere into its AI infrastructure portfolio.2025 年 3 月 19 日，软银宣布以 65 亿美元全现金收购，凯雷、甲骨文与 Arm 出售持股，软银通过 Silver Bands 6 买入。这一结构把 Ampere 并入其 AI 基础设施版图。
• The FTC issued a second request in July 2025, sending the parties through a full merger review, and the agency granted early termination in November before the deal closed on 25 November 2025 after CFIUS clearance.美国联邦贸易委员会 2025 年 7 月发出二次问询，使交易进入完整合并审查。该机构在 11 月提前终止审查，交易随后在美国外国投资委员会批准后于 2025 年 11 月 25 日完成。
• In 2026 Ampere pushed into European sovereign clouds, with Scaleway, Glesys, CloudSigma and C41.ch adding AmpereOne capacity and Hetzner validating the chips for a 2026 deployment, as AI inference and power limits drove demand for denser Arm servers.2026 年，Ampere 进入欧洲主权云市场：Scaleway、Glesys、CloudSigma 与 C41.ch 增加 AmpereOne 容量，Hetzner 也在为 2026 年的部署验证芯片。AI 推理与电力限制推高了对高密度 Arm 服务器的需求。

Business and products

• Ampere runs a single business, fabless design of Arm server CPUs and the reference platforms around them, with TSMC manufacturing the dies and Ampere earning revenue from chip sales to cloud providers and server makers.Ampere 只做一项业务：无晶圆厂设计 Arm 服务器 CPU 及配套参考平台，芯片由台积电制造，收入来自向云服务商与服务器厂商销售芯片。
• The Altra line targets scale-out workloads such as web serving, containers, databases and telco edge, using 80 or 128 single-threaded cores, eight DDR4 channels, PCIe 4.0 and a 250-watt envelope that lets one rack hold more cores than an x86 rack of the same power.Altra 系列面向 Web 服务、容器、数据库与电信边缘等横向扩展负载，提供 80 或 128 个单线程核心、8 通道 DDR4、PCIe 4.0，功耗上限 250 瓦，使同等电力下单个机柜能容纳比 x86 更多的核心。
• AmpereOne moved to 192 in-house cores on 5 nm with eight DDR5 channels and 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes, aimed at databases, data analytics and dense containers where per-core predictability matters more than burst clocks.AmpereOne 改用 5 纳米工艺的 192 个自研核心，配 8 通道 DDR5 与 128 条 PCIe 5.0 通道，面向数据库、数据分析与高密度容器等更看重单核可预测性而非瞬时频率的场景。
• AmpereOne M, shipping since late 2024 and detailed in May 2025, kept 192 cores but widened memory to 12 channels of DDR5-5600 and 96 PCIe 5.0 lanes, raising bandwidth for AI inference and memory-bound analytics at 348 watts for the 3.2 GHz top part.AmpereOne M 从 2024 年底开始出货，2025 年 5 月公布细节，仍为 192 核，但内存扩展到 12 通道 DDR5-5600，PCIe 5.0 通道为 96 条，为 AI 推理与受内存带宽制约的分析负载提高带宽。3.2 GHz 顶配型号功耗 348 瓦。
• The next steps are AmpereOne MX, a 256-core design on TSMC's 3 nm process expected in 2026, and Aurora, a 512-core part announced in 2024 with an AI engine and HBM memory whose volume timing has not been disclosed.后续路线是台积电 3 纳米、预计 2026 年推出的 256 核 AmpereOne MX，以及 2024 年发布的 Aurora。Aurora 拥有 512 核、内置 AI 引擎与 HBM 内存，量产时间尚未公开。
• Oracle is the deepest partner: OCI has run Ampere since A1, moved to AmpereOne in A2 and launched A4 on AmpereOne M in November 2025 in Ashburn, Phoenix, Frankfurt and London, claiming 45% more performance per core than A2.甲骨文是合作最深的伙伴：OCI 从 A1 起采用 Ampere，A2 转向 AmpereOne，2025 年 11 月在阿什本、凤凰城、法兰克福与伦敦推出基于 AmpereOne M 的 A4，声称每核性能比 A2 高 45%。
• Google Cloud sells T2A instances on Altra, Microsoft Azure offers Dpsv5 and Epsv5 shapes, and HPE, Supermicro, Gigabyte and Wiwynn build systems, while Tencent Cloud, ByteDance, Cloudflare, Hetzner and Uber have disclosed deployments.谷歌云在 Altra 上提供 T2A 实例，微软 Azure 提供 Dpsv5 与 Epsv5 规格，慧与、超微、技嘉与纬颖负责整机。腾讯云、字节跳动、Cloudflare、Hetzner 与 Uber 已披露部署。
• The pitch is rack-level economics: fewer watts per core, predictable single-thread performance and no need for simultaneous multithreading, which appeals to clouds packing thousands of independent containers onto shared machines.卖点是机柜级经济性：每核功耗更低、单线程性能可预测，且不依赖同时多线程。这对把数千个独立容器塞进共享机器的云厂商很有吸引力。
• Software support is the constraint: Ampere certifies Arm SystemReady platforms and works with Linux, Kubernetes, Java, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis and PyTorch, but x86 incumbency still forces customers to recompile or qualify parts of their estates.软件支持是主要约束：Ampere 认证 Arm SystemReady 平台，并适配 Linux、Kubernetes、Java、MySQL、PostgreSQL、Redis 与 PyTorch，但 x86 的存量优势仍迫使客户重新编译或验证部分系统。
• Sales run through cloud instances and server OEMs rather than retail channels, so revenue is concentrated in a small number of accounts whose procurement cycles can swing a quarter.销售通过云实例与服务器代工厂完成，而非零售渠道，因此收入集中在少数客户手里，其采购周期足以左右一个季度的业绩。

Organization and governance

• Ampere Computing LLC is the operating company, Ampere Computing Holdings LLC is the entity SoftBank acquired, and Ampere is the product brand, three layers that are easy to conflate.Ampere Computing LLC 是经营主体，Ampere Computing Holdings LLC 是软银收购的标的实体，Ampere 则是产品品牌。这三层常被混为一谈。
• Before the sale, Carlyle held 59.65%, Oracle 32.27% and Arm 8.08%, a cap table that gave the private-equity sponsor control, the largest customer a blocking stake and the licensor a seat at the table.出售前，凯雷持股 59.65%，甲骨文 32.27%，Arm 8.08%。这一股权结构让私募股东掌握控制权，让最大客户拥有否决性股份，也让指令集授权方进入决策圈。
• SoftBank Group Corp., listed in Tokyo under 9984, now owns 100% through Silver Bands 6 (US) Corp. and the merger subsidiary Summit Bright LLC, so Ampere has no public float and no separately traded securities.在东京上市的软银集团（代码 9984）如今通过 Silver Bands 6 (US) Corp. 与合并子公司 Summit Bright LLC 持有 100% 股权。Ampere 因此没有流通股，也没有单独挂牌证券。
• James was chair and chief executive from 2017 until the 2025 sale, combining the founder's role with day-to-day control and representing Ampere in public fights over Arm server economics.詹姆斯从 2017 年到 2025 年出售期间担任董事长兼首席执行官，既承担创始人角色，也掌握日常经营，并在围绕 Arm 服务器经济性的公开争论中代表公司。
• Atiq Bajwa, the chief architect, led the move from licensed Neoverse cores to Ampere's own core design, the technical bet behind AmpereOne and its 192-core density.首席架构师阿提克·巴杰瓦主导了从授权 Neoverse 核心转向自研核心的过程，这是 AmpereOne 及其 192 核密度背后的技术赌注。
• Todd Underwood was chief financial officer through the 2025 sale, Jeff Wittich served as chief product officer and Rohit Vidwans as chief engineering and manufacturing officer, a team drawn heavily from Intel and the server OEM world.托德·安德伍德在 2025 年出售完成前担任首席财务官，杰夫·维蒂奇任首席产品官，罗希特·维德万斯任首席工程与制造官。团队多来自英特尔与服务器代工体系。
• The company works from nine offices, including Santa Clara, Portland, Raleigh, Warsaw, Bangalore, Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Taipei and Hsinchu, a layout that follows customers, Arm talent and Taiwanese server ODMs.公司在 9 个办公点运营，包括圣克拉拉、波特兰、罗利、华沙、班加罗尔、胡志明市、上海、台北与新竹。这一布局贴近客户、Arm 人才与台湾服务器代工厂。
• There are no named business divisions. Engineering is organized around core design, SoC and platform, software enablement and manufacturing operations, with cloud account teams layered on top.公司没有具名事业部。工程组织围绕核心设计、SoC 与平台、软件适配、制造运营展开，云客户团队叠加其上。

Financials

• Ampere has never published standalone audited accounts, but SoftBank's March 2025 announcement disclosed revenue of US152 million for fiscal 2022, US46.7 million for fiscal 2023 and US$16.46 million for fiscal 2024.Ampere 从未公布独立的经审计财报，但软银 2025 年 3 月的公告披露了营收：2022 财年 1.52 亿美元，2023 财年 4670 万美元，2024 财年 1646 万美元。
• Those same figures showed the losses widening then narrowing: US514 million in fiscal 2022, US831 million in fiscal 2023 and US581 million in fiscal 2024, with a US511 million operating loss in the last year.同一组数据里的亏损先扩大后收窄：2022 财年 5.14 亿美元，2023 财年 8.31 亿美元，2024 财年 5.81 亿美元，最后一年营业亏损为 5.11 亿美元。
• At fiscal year-end 2024 Ampere reported total assets of US337 million and negative net assets of US1.513 billion, a balance sheet that made an independent future hard to finance.2024 财年末，Ampere 总资产为 3.37 亿美元，净资产为负 15.13 亿美元。这样的资产负债表很难支撑独立发展所需的融资。
• SoftBank funded the US$6.5 billion price with loans in 2025, including from Mizuho, and said at closing that the acquisition's effect on its own earnings was still being assessed.2025 年，软银用贷款为 65 亿美元对价融资，瑞穗银行是参与方之一。交易完成时软银表示，收购对自身业绩的影响仍在评估。
• Oracle had invested about US850 million in Ampere since 2017, according to SEC filings reported in October 2022, and carried the stake at US1.5 billion in its fiscal 2024 10-K.据 2022 年 10 月报道的美国证券交易委员会文件，甲骨文自 2017 年起向 Ampere 累计投入约 8.5 亿美元，并在 2024 财年 10-K 中将这笔持股的账面价值记为 15 亿美元。
• Oracle also bought US600 million of Ampere convertible notes in fiscal 2024 and US400 million in fiscal 2023, instruments due in June 2026 that could have converted into enough equity to give Oracle control by January 2027.甲骨文还在 2024 财年购买 6 亿美元 Ampere 可转换票据，2023 财年购买 4 亿美元。这些票据 2026 年 6 月到期，转换后加上期权，甲骨文原本可在 2027 年 1 月前取得控制权。
• The exit was lucrative for Oracle: selling its stake produced a US$2.7 billion pre-tax gain in the quarter ended 30 November 2025, a number Oracle put in its fiscal 2026 second-quarter release.退出对甲骨文颇为划算：出售持股在截至 2025 年 11 月 30 日的季度带来 27 亿美元税前收益，甲骨文在 2026 财年第二季度公告中披露了这一数字。
• The 2025 price looked modest against the US$8 billion valuation that circulated when SoftBank explored a minority stake in 2021, a discount Bloomberg highlighted when the deal was announced.与 2021 年软银洽谈少数股权时流传的 80 亿美元估值相比，2025 年的价格并不高。彭博社在交易宣布时特别提到了这一折价。
• The company's value rested on its engineering team: SoftBank's announcement cited about 1,000 semiconductor engineers, not revenue, as the reason for the deal, and the buyer was paying for a roadmap rather than current sales.公司的价值落在工程团队上：软银公告把约 1000 名半导体工程师而非营收列为收购理由，买方买的是路线图而不是当下的销售额。

Reception

• CRN put Ampere on its 2023 list of the 10 hottest semiconductor startups, citing the 192-core AmpereOne and design wins at Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle.CRN 把 Ampere 列入 2023 年十大最热门半导体初创公司，理由是 192 核的 AmpereOne 以及谷歌云、微软 Azure 与甲骨文的设计采用。
• Jefferies estimated in 2022 that Ampere held about 0.6% of cloud server CPU shipments, against Intel's 77.2%, AMD's 17% and AWS Graviton's 4.2%, a reminder of how small the merchant Arm niche was.杰富瑞 2022 年估计，Ampere 在云服务器 CPU 出货量中约占 0.6%，英特尔为 77.2%，AMD 为 17%，AWS Graviton 为 4.2%。这提醒人们，Arm 外售市场当时有多么狭小。
• Counterpoint counted all Arm vendors at 4.68% of 2022 server CPU revenue, with Intel at 70.77% and AMD at 19.84%, so even the leading Arm merchant remained a rounding error in the money pool.Counterpoint 统计，2022 年所有 Arm 厂商合计占服务器 CPU 营收的 4.68%，英特尔为 70.77%，AMD 为 19.84%。即便领头的 Arm 外售厂商，在收入盘子里仍只是一个零头。
• The market shifted after 2025: TrendForce estimated Arm-based CPUs had just passed 10% of server shipments in 2025 and projected 23% in 2026 and 30% in 2027, driven by Nvidia Vera, Google Axion, AWS Graviton and Microsoft Cobalt.2025 年之后市场开始转向：TrendForce 估计 Arm 架构 CPU 在 2025 年刚刚超过服务器出货量的 10%，并预测 2026 年达到 23%、2027 年达到 30%，动力来自英伟达 Vera、谷歌 Axion、AWS Graviton 与微软 Cobalt。
• The SoftBank deal drew a second request from the FTC in July 2025, sending the parties through a full merger review, and the agency granted early termination in November before the deal closed.软银交易在 2025 年 7 月收到美国联邦贸易委员会的二次问询，使双方进入完整合并审查。该机构在 11 月允许提前终止审查，交易随后完成。
• Bloomberg framed the US6.5 billion price as a discount to the US8 billion valuation of 2021, evidence that a loss-making chip startup with a narrow customer base had lost bargaining power.彭博社把 65 亿美元的价格描述为对 2021 年 80 亿美元估值的折价，认为这说明一家亏损、客户集中度高的芯片初创公司已经失去议价能力。
• Larry Ellison, Oracle's chairman, said in December 2025 that Oracle sold Ampere because designing its own chips was no longer strategic, and he committed the cloud to chip neutrality across CPU and GPU suppliers.甲骨文董事长拉里·埃里森 2025 年 12 月表示，出售 Ampere 是因为自研芯片对甲骨文已不再具有战略意义。他还宣布甲骨文云将奉行对 CPU 与 GPU 供应商一视同仁的芯片中立政策。
• Oracle's launch materials claim A4 instances deliver 83% better price-performance than Nvidia A10 GPUs on Llama 3.1 8B inference, a vendor number that has not been independently replicated in public.甲骨文的发布材料声称，A4 实例在 Llama 3.1 8B 推理上的性价比比英伟达 A10 GPU 高 83%。这一厂商数字尚未看到公开的独立复现。

Notable people

• Renée James is the founder, and she was chair and chief executive from 2017 until the 2025 sale, after a career at Intel that ended with the presidency from 2013 to 2016 and included a seat on Oracle's board from 2015.蕾妮·詹姆斯是创始人，2017 年至 2025 年出售期间担任董事长兼首席执行官。她此前在英特尔任职，2013 至 2016 年出任总裁，并从 2015 年起担任甲骨文董事。
• Atiq Bajwa is the chief architect and the executive most associated with Ampere's custom core, the design that replaced licensed Neoverse cores in AmpereOne and made 192 single-threaded cores possible.阿提克·巴杰瓦是首席架构师，也是与 Ampere 自研核心关联最紧的高管。这一设计在 AmpereOne 中取代授权 Neoverse 核心，使 192 个单线程核心成为可能。
• Todd Underwood was the chief financial officer through the 2025 sale, running a capital structure that depended on Oracle convertible notes and ended with a US$6.5 billion trade sale.托德·安德伍德在 2025 年出售完成前担任首席财务官，管理的资本结构依赖甲骨文可转换票据，最终以 65 亿美元整体出售收场。
• Jeff Wittich, chief product officer, became the public face of Ampere's cloud business, explaining in 2026 why European providers wanted AmpereOne for sovereign AI inference rather than generic x86 capacity.首席产品官杰夫·维蒂奇成为 Ampere 云业务的对外代表，2026 年他解释了欧洲供应商为何选择 AmpereOne 承载主权 AI 推理，而不是通用 x86 算力。
• Rohit Vidwans, chief engineering and manufacturing officer, oversaw the transitions from TSMC 7 nm to 5 nm and the 12-channel AmpereOne M platform, the execution side of the roadmap.首席工程与制造官罗希特·维德万斯负责从台积电 7 纳米到 5 纳米的工艺迁移，以及 12 通道的 AmpereOne M 平台，是路线图的执行端。
• The founders and the executives are different groups: James is the founder, while Bajwa, Underwood, Wittich and Vidwans were senior hires brought in to scale a startup into a merchant chip supplier.创始人与高管是两个群体：詹姆斯是创始人，巴杰瓦、安德伍德、维蒂奇与维德万斯都是后来加入、把初创公司做成外售芯片供应商的高级雇员。
• James's 2026 board biography at Portland General Electric describes her as Ampere's founder and former chair and CEO, the clearest public confirmation that the founder era ended with the sale.詹姆斯在波特兰通用电气 2026 年的董事简介中被称为 Ampere 的创始人兼前董事长、前首席执行官，这是创始人时代随出售结束的最明确公开印证。