SoftBank Corp revealed it will build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer using Nvidia’s new Blackwell chips to power a range of initiatives, with plans also in place for a second system featuring the chipmaker’s more advanced Grace Blackwell platform.

The operator is scheduled to receive the world’s first Nvidia DGXTM B200 systems for its supercomputer, which will be used for its own generative AI development and AI-related business, as well as support work at universities, research institutions and businesses in Japan, the pair explained in a joint statement.

SoftBank plans to use Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell platform for its next supercomputer to run extremely compute-intensive workloads, it added.

The operator also announced it conducted the world’s first AI-5G RAN outdoor trial using newly developed L1 software running on Nvidia’s AI and accelerated computing platform. It explained the network can run AI and 5G workloads at the same time, offering operators the ability to transform their base stations into AI revenue-producing assets.

SoftBank president and CEO Junichi Miyakawa noted with its powerful AI infrastructure and new, distributed AI-RAN Aitras solution, “we will accelerate innovation across the country and throughout the world”.

Ronnie Vasishta, SVP of telecom at Nvidia, claimed shifting from single-purpose to multi-purpose AI-RAN networks can mean five-times the revenue for every dollar of capex invested.

SoftBank is part of the AI-RAN Alliance launched earlier this year, a working group counting Ericsson, Nokia, Microsoft and T-Mobile US among its members.