SoftBank Group Corp.

Money Moves

Completed $40B total OpenAI investment ($30B initial + $10B tranche from $40B loan)

OpenAI closed a record $122 billion funding round on April 1, 2026, lifting the maker of ChatGPT to an $852 billion post-money valuation and eclipsing every prior private capital raise. Amazon led with a $50 billion commitment -- $15 billion upfront and $35 billion contingent on OpenAI reaching artificial general intelligence or completing an IPO by year-end. Nvidia and SoftBank each committed $30 billion, with SoftBank's second $10 billion tranche arriving alongside closes from a16z and D.E. Shaw. The round took the company from a $157 billion valuation seventeen months earlier to one more than five times larger.

Updated Apr 23

Money Moves

Borrowing against multiple assets to fund OpenAI commitments

SoftBank Group is in talks to borrow $10 billion against its shares in OpenAI, the latest in a chain of debt deals that have funded one of the largest concentrated bets in modern corporate history. The two-year margin loan, reported by Bloomberg on April 23, 2026, would carry an interest rate of roughly 7.88% and sit on top of a $40 billion bridge facility SoftBank arranged just weeks earlier.

Updated Apr 23

Money Moves

Selling portfolio assets to fund AI strategy; PayPay's controlling shareholder post-IPO

PayPay, the mobile wallet used by three out of four smartphone owners in Japan, began trading on the Nasdaq on March 12 after raising $880 million in its initial public offering. The company sold roughly 55 million American Depositary Shares at $16 each, below its marketed range of $17 to $20, valuing the business at approximately $10.7 billion. It is the largest stock offering by a Japanese company on a U.S. exchange in over a decade.

Updated Mar 12

Money Moves

Acquiring DigitalBridge to expand AI infrastructure control

SoftBank just agreed to pay $4 billion for DigitalBridge, the alternative asset manager that controls $108 billion in data centers, cell towers, and fiber networks across three continents. It's the latest—and clearest—signal that Masayoshi Son is betting SoftBank's future on owning the physical infrastructure that powers AI, not just the software running on top of it. The timing is no coincidence: SoftBank is racing to secure $22.5 billion by year-end 2025 to meet its Stargate funding commitment to OpenAI.

Updated Dec 29, 2025