The investment would make SoftBank OpenAI’s biggest financial backer
Reports began circulating this week that SoftBank is in talks to invest as much as $25 billion into OpenAI, a move that would position the Japanese operator as the generative AI (gen AI) company’s biggest financial backer.
The news comes a week or so after U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that SoftBank and OpenAI are involved an AI joint venture dubbed Stargate, which involves the build out of several AI data centers, as well as the electricity needed to run them, in Texas. Additional Stargate partners include Microsoft Arm, NVIDIA and technology investor MGX. The initial investment from these partners is expected to be $100 billion, but the White House noted it could end up being five times that amount.
The Japanese company’s direct investment into OpenAI is in addition to the more than $15 billion committed to the Stargate project, according to several sources, adding that the company may end up spend more than $40 billion on its OpenAI partnership when all is said and done.
Last year, SoftBank acquired a $2 billion stake in OpenAI — nothing compared to the $13 billion that Microsoft has injected into the company. But SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son’s confidence in America’s AI ambitions coupled with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s desire to lessen the his company’s dependence on Microsoft could lead to a shift in this majority — if, of course, the rumors are true.
