ISLAMABAD (MNN); Japan’s SoftBank Group has completed its massive $40 billion investment in OpenAI, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, marking one of the largest private funding rounds ever and reinforcing founder Masayoshi Son’s long-term bet on artificial intelligence.
SoftBank has been assembling one of the world’s biggest private technology investment platforms, with a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence and supporting infrastructure such as large-scale data centres. The sector has emerged as the driving force of global technology markets this year, triggering heavy investment by leading corporations and reshaping investor expectations worldwide.
Neither SoftBank nor OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, immediately responded to requests for comment.
In March, SoftBank agreed to invest up to $40 billion in a for-profit subsidiary of OpenAI. The funding was structured through a mix of direct capital injection and syndicated co-investments involving other backers.
The transaction initially valued OpenAI at around $300 billion on a post-money basis. However, a subsequent secondary share sale completed in October pushed the company’s valuation to nearly $500 billion, according to data from Pitchbook.
Sources said SoftBank transferred the final tranche of between $22 billion and $22.5 billion last week, after syndicating $10 billion and directly investing about $8 billion in OpenAI earlier.
OpenAI has become a key pillar in the wider surge of spending across the artificial intelligence industry. Along with partners such as Oracle and other stakeholders, the company has announced plans for a major multi-year data centre initiative known as “Stargate,” aimed at supporting the development and deployment of next-generation AI models. The project is backed by several major investors, including SoftBank.
