Key Highlights:
- SoftBank has reportedly completed its committed $40 billion investment into OpenAI, hinting just how serious Masayoshi Son is about having a front-row seat in the AI era.
- That investment goes directly into Stargate, a massive, multi-year data center project backed by SoftBank, Oracle, and other partners to support next-generation AI models at scale.
- SoftBank isn’t just betting on AI software leadership, but also on the infrastructure front, which helps to train, deploy, and run powerful AI systems globally.
As Bill Gates recently said, we all are living inside an AI bubble right now, which I believe is somehow reshaping the global tech landscape. SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate, appears to have made sure that it is in the front row of this AI boom, all thanks to its massive alliance with OpenAI.
As artificial intelligence continues to drive big investments and strategic bets across industrie, SoftBank Group has been doubling down on its commitment to AI infrastructure. Here I’m talking about the Stargate project. For the uninitiated, it is a multi-year data center project designed to support next generation AI model.
OpenAI receives commited $40 billion investment from SoftBank to push Stargate project
The Stargate project is also backed by Oracle and other key investors. Well, a new report suggests that Japanese conglomerate involvement in the Stargate project has reached a new milestone. The news comes via CNBC, which in its exclusive report, mentioned that the SoftBank has completed its $40 billion investment in OpenAI. Just to be clear it is one of the largest private funding rounds in the tech history.
To catch you up, the deal was first announced back in March 2025, which included the capital and syndicated co-investment from other backing companies like Oracle, to fund Open AI and its AI expansion.
According to the news outlet, SoftBank has already sent the $22-$22.5 as final tranch last week. Earlier, the conglomerate had sent $8 billion and a syndicated $10 billion investment. Thanks to this Investment soft bank has solidifies its bet on AI as a central pillar of its tech strategy.
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The investment will act as a backbone for the Stsrgate project
Reuters, citing Pitchbook data, reports that OpenAI, is now roughly valued at $500 billion after a secondary stock sale in October. No wonder it is emerging as an industry’s flagship for large scale AI development and deployment. Meanwhile, the Stargate project has been positioned to provide the infrastructure backbone required to train and run the Next generation AI models at scale.
Speaking of that from SoftBank’s point of view, this dual strategy positions it as the financier and the one who is backing AI innovation. Let’s not forget that SoftBank has been actively pouring in big investments into AI startups and firms that can help it push AI infrastructure even more.
