Japanese telecoms and tech investment giant SoftBank Group has entered into a definitive agreement with US artificial intelligence market leader OpenAI to invest up to US$40 billion in the company.
Of the total investment, SoftBank to inject up to US$30 billion of its own capital and syndicate out US$10 billion to co-investors.
The investment is made on the basis of valuing OpenAI at US$260 billion - giving SoftBank and co-investors a potential stake of up to 15.38%
Under the agreement, SoftBank will pay an initial instalment of US$10 billion in April 2025 and between US$10-30 billion by the end of 2025.
SoftBank outlined its rationale for its AI investment saying the "information revolution" has now entered a new phase led by AI.
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"In this context, SoftBank Group has declared its mission to realise Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) for the advancement of humanity," SoftBank says..
"Recognising OpenAI as the partner closest to achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a key milestone on the path to ASI, and its mission of ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity, SoftBank Group has positioned OpenAI as its most important partner and invested US$2.2 billion in total since September 2024."
According to SoftBank, the advancement of OpenAI’s AI models is key to achieving AGI and ASI, and massive computing power is essential.
"To that end, SoftBank Group has announced the “Stargate Project” together with OpenAI on January 21, 2025, to build dedicated AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States," SoftBank says.
"In alignment with this initiative, and to both further support OpenAI’s growth and capture the benefits of that growth, SBG has decided to make follow-on investments in OpenAI."