SoftBank announced it had finished installing approximately 4,000 Nvidia Hopper GPUs in its Japan top-level AI computing platform now under expansion. The platform is one of the largest computing platforms in Japan for large language models (LLMs) learning. SoftBank began operating its 0.7 exaflops AI computing platform equipped with approximately 2,000 Nvidia Ampere GPUs in September 2023. With this installation of approximately 4,000 Nvidia Hopper GPUs, the AI platform's total computing performance has been boosted to approximately exaflops with approximately 6,000 GPUs installed.
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Plans for Future Enhancements
SoftBank said the company plans to further enhance its AI computing platform's performance by deploying an Nvidia DGX SuperPOD and DGX B200 systems, aiming for a total compute capacity of 25.7 exaflops by FY2025 by increasing the total number of GPUs installed to approximately 10,000.
Focus on Homegrown LLMs
This AI computing platform will initially be utilised by SB Intuitions Corp (SB Intuitions), SoftBank's subsidiary dedicated to developing homegrown large language models (LLMs) specialised for the Japanese language.
SB Intuitions is aiming to build LLMs with approximately 390 billion parameters that support multiple modalities within FY2024. With this AI computing platform enhancement, development of LLMs will be further accelerated, the company said.
Government Certification
SoftBank also mentioned that its AI platform has received certification from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) under the Economic Security Promotion Act, ensuring supply assurance. The company plans to offer its AI computing resources as a service to various generative AI developers and research institutions across Japan, contributing to the establishment of development infrastructure and strengthen the service provision framework in the country.
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Service Expansion
"In addition to utilising the AI computing platform among its own group companies, SoftBank plans to provide the infrastructure as a service to companies and research institutions based in Japan," SoftBank said Thursday.
