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SoftBank today announced its intent to purchase a historic $2 billion worth of Intel shares—a roughly 2% stake—making it one of the largest shareholders of the American chipmaker. However, the Financial Times reports that just days before the deal was inked, Softbank actually considered buying Intel’s foundry division outright.

This follows another unprecedented report that the White House is considering a 10% stake in Intel, utilizing grants from the CHIPS Act and converting them into equity.

Intel received that CHIPS Act money on the promise of never spinning off the fabs the funds directly impacted, as they serve an important geopolitical role in the race for bleeding-edge semiconductors. Intel is one of the last companies in the cutting-edge process race with TSMC, whose roots in Taiwan have provoked long-simmering concerns about its vulnerability and the stability of leading-edge semiconductor supply in the event that China should invade the island in pursuit of reunification.

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Intel has been struggling for years, and the current CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, was installed earlier this year to turn the company’s fortunes around. Quickly, Tan shifted Intel’s focus to save costs and stick to its core business. Despite efforts to bolster homegrown chipmaking, Tan has faced intense scrutiny, mostly due to his former ties with China, which even led to calls for his resignation by President Trump.

(Image credit: Getty Images / Bloomberg)

SoftBank is a Japanese financial institution that owns a majority stake in semiconductor IP developer Arm and already has close ties with the Trump administration thanks to the Stargate project. For those out of the loop, that’s a $500 billion promise to build AI infrastructure in the U.S. that would purportedly create 100,000 jobs, bolster American chipmaking, and make the country the clear leader in bleeding-edge AI applications.

SoftBank already owns 40% of that project and is now set to own 2% of Intel, marking a significant investment in the promise of a turnaround for the beleaguered company and its geopolitical importance in keeping bleeding-edge semiconductors local to America.

Lip-Bu Tan also served as a board member for SoftBank till 2022, and left amidst the company’s own set of challenges following a few miscalculated investments.

Years later, Son is now investing in Intel. “Masa and I have worked closely together for decades, and I appreciate the confidence he has placed in Intel with this investment,” said Tan. This endeavor aligns with SoftBank’s broader strategies geared toward expanding its presence in the AI market and gaining a foothold in emerging technologies.

Previously, SoftBank invested heavily in Nvidia, owning about 4.9% of the company, but it sold those shares in 2019 when Nvidia’s share price was in a downturn. After losing out on billions in gains in recent years when Nvidia began its meteoric rise, Softbank increased its investment in Nvidia to $3 billion at the beginning of 2025.

As part of its Project Izanagi initiative, Softbank reportedly explored fabricating an AI accelerator of its own with Intel in 2024, but due to a lack of confidence in Intel meeting its performance and volume projections, Softbank pivoted to TSMC for its foundry needs. SoftBank also acquired Graphcore for its AI accelerator IP as part of its larger strategy.

(Image credit: Intel)

Right now, Intel’s foundry business is struggling as its next-gen 18A and 14A process nodes are on the chopping block (the former for external customers) if it can’t secure enough customer commitments. Intel has, however, reiterated that it is its own biggest customer and that the company is committed to chip manufacturing.

SoftBank’s $2 billion stake in Intel demonstrates a great deal of trust in Tan’s leadership, but Son’s history of questionable investment choices means a resurgent Intel is far from a sure thing. Intel has also lost out to Nvidia in the AI race and continues to lose ground in both the consumer x86 and server markets to AMD. Whether Trump’s and Son’s interventions in the fate of the company are enough to save it remains to be seen.

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Elden Ring Nightreign’s director says that while FromSoft prioritised getting the three-player and solo experiences the game offers just right for launch, folks who prefer to take on the challenges of the night as a pair might be getting some duos-focused “post-launch support”.

You can play Nightreign as a duo right out of the gate, provided you don’t mind being matched up with a random third wheel to make up your team, much in the same way anyone playing solo will end up with two strangers that gaming law dictates will either be unbelievably skilled or utterly hopeless.

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Speaking to IGN, Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki was asked why the game doesn’t have an option for a duo to drop right into a game as a twosome if they wish.

“The simple answer is that this is simply something that was overlooked during development as just a two-player option, so we’re very sorry about that,” Ishizaki re-iterating that trios play the game’s three person teams naturally facilitate and solo play were the two options that it made most sense for the studio to focus on from the get go, especially when it came to balancing.

“We did put a lot of effort into creating this experience that was playable for solo players in as much as the rules and new systems allowed,” he explained, “So in putting all our efforts into that aspect, we kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect, but this is something that we are looking at and considering for post-launch support as well.”

It makes sense. Trios action is “at the core of Nightreign”, so that’s gotta be the main focus, and FromSoft games are famous for letting you solo bosses, so to cater to the usual single-player crowd playing by yourself has to be a priority in terms of striking a difficulty balance that’s in the Godskin Goldilocks zone. You’ve only got finite time and resources, so the couples take a backseat.

Ishizaki outlined the sort of work that’s gone into making sure the game for individual players a bit further on in the interview, explaining: “Solo play is generally encouraged and is a natural part of the game loop, but also in general for those solo players — and this might be something that’s difficult to notice in multiplayer — but the activeness and aggressiveness of enemies towards any one single player has been adjusted so that you don’t find yourself in any unreasonable multi-foe fights. And just generally, when you’re playing single player, the parameters adjust dynamically depending on the number of players in that session.”

If you want a picture of what the Nightreign playing experience is like, make sure to read our hands-on preview from earlier this year. Also, it’s now been confirmed that an Elden Ring movie is in the works.

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Softbank reportedly considered buying Intel’s foundry division outright before investing $2 billion into the company as equity

Elden Ring Nightreign director says Fromsoft “kind of overlooked and neglected” playing as a duo, but 2 player-friendly “post-launch support” is being considered