Masayoshi Son pitches $1 trillion U.S. AI hub to TSMC and Trump team

SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to team up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to realize what could be his biggest bet yet — a trillion-dollar industrial complex in Arizona to build robots and artificial intelligence.

Son envisions a version of the vast manufacturing hub of China’s Shenzhen that would bring back high-tech manufacturing to the U.S., according to people familiar with the billionaire’s thinking. The park may comprise production lines for AI-powered industrial robots, they said, asking not to be named as the plan remains private.

SoftBank officials are keen to have the Taiwanese maker of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips play a prominent role in the project, although it’s not clear what part Son sees for TSMC, which already plans to invest $165 billion in the U.S. and has started mass production at its first Arizona factory. Nor is it clear that TSMC would be interested. A person familiar with the chipmaker’s thinking said that SoftBank’s project has no bearing on TSMC’s plans in Phoenix.