SoftBank completes record $40 billion investment in OpenAI

SoftBank Group has completed a $40 billion investment in OpenAI, reported Reuters. This was one of the largest private funding rounds in history and reinforced founder Masayoshi Son's bet on the development of artificial intelligence.

SoftBank is building one of the world's largest private investment programs in the tech sector, focusing primarily on artificial intelligence and related infrastructure, including data centers.

In 2025, AI became a key driver of global tech markets, which triggered a sharp increase in investment by leading corporations and significantly changed investor expectations.

In March, SoftBank agreed to invest up to $40 billion in OpenAI's commercial structure. The financing includes both direct equity investments and joint investments with other partners.

After receiving the funds, the company was valued at about $300 billion, but in the fall, a secondary sale of shares raised its market value to about $500 billion.

Last week, SoftBank sent the final tranche of investments in the amount of $22-22.5 billion, after syndication of $10 billion and its own investments in OpenAI in the amount of $8 billion.

In fact, OpenAI has become a key pillar of the trend toward a sharp increase in spending on artificial intelligence development.

ChatGPT developer, together with the world's largest developer of software for organizations Oracle and other partners, is planning a large-scale multi-year project called Stargate, a network of data centers to support new generation artificial intelligence models. The initiative is supported by major investors, including SoftBank Group.

• on November 11, it became known that the Japanese tech giant SoftBank sold his share у Nvidia for $5.8 billion, shifting its focus to investments in OpenAI and other AI projects.
• on December 1, the founder of SoftBank Group Corp. Masayoshi Son announced that he had sold shares in Nvidia Corp. only because of the need for funds for new investments in artificial intelligence, calling it a difficult decision for him.
• on December 29, it became known that Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. is negotiating the acquisition of DigitalBridge Group Inc. – a private equity firm that invests in data centers and other digital infrastructure.