Key takeaways SoftBank is scrambling to fulfill a $22.5 billion funding commitment to OpenAI by December 31, 2025, through asset sales and potential margin loans. CEO Masayoshi Son has already sold So...
The Japanese conglomerate's massive bet on OpenAI represents one of the boldest moves yet by CEO Masayoshi Son as he seeks to position SoftBank at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution.
The scale of the commitment has forced Son to make dramatic portfolio adjustments and redirect virtually all of SoftBank's resources toward the OpenAI deal.
To meet its funding obligations, Son has already executed major asset sales.
The company divested its entire $5.8 billion stake in AI chip leader Nvidia and offloaded $4.8 billion of its T-Mobile US holdings.
SoftBank has also implemented staff cuts and severely restricted new investments, with any deal exceeding $50 million now requiring Son's personal approval, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters.
Investment managers at SoftBank's Vision Fund have been redirected to focus on the OpenAI transaction, the sources added.
The company has slowed most other dealmaking activities at its Vision Fund to what sources described as a crawl, underscoring the all-in nature of Son's commitment to OpenAI.
SoftBank is also preparing to take its payments app operator PayPay public in what could be a crucial capital infusion.
The initial public offering, originally scheduled for December, was delayed due to the 43-day U.S. government shutdown that ended in November.
PayPay's market debut is now expected in the first quarter of 2026 and is projected to raise more than $20 billion, according to sources with direct knowledge of the plans.
Beyond asset sales, SoftBank is considering tapping into its substantial margin loan capacity backed by its ownership of British semiconductor firm Arm Holdings.
The company recently expanded this margin loan capacity by $6.5 billion, bringing total undrawn capacity to $11.5 billion.
Arm's stock has tripled since its IPO, providing SoftBank with additional collateral to expand its borrowing capacity.
SoftBank reported parent-level cash of 4.2 trillion yen ($27.16 billion) as of September 30.
The group still owns approximately 4% of T-Mobile US, making it the wireless carrier's second-largest shareholder with a stake valued at roughly $11 billion at the end of September.
The Japanese conglomerate is also exploring options to monetize some of its holdings in Didi Global, China's dominant ride-hailing platform.
Didi is planning to list its shares in Hong Kong after a regulatory crackdown forced it to delist from U.S. exchanges in 2021, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Son has compelling financial incentives to fulfill these funding obligations.
SoftBank secured its deal to invest in OpenAI at a $300 billion valuation in April.
Since then, OpenAI's valuation has risen dramatically, with the company now in talks to raise additional funding from investors, including Amazon, that would triple its valuation to close to $900 billion, according to sources.
This surge would give SoftBank a significant paper gain once the transaction is completed.
The funding commitment was structured in two phases. SoftBank promised to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI, with $10 billion delivered in April.
The remaining $22.5 billion payment was contingent on OpenAI transitioning to a for-profit corporation by the end of 2025, an ambitious restructuring that OpenAI successfully completed in October.
The new capital is crucial for covering OpenAI's escalating costs to train and run its AI models as competition from Alphabet's Google intensifies.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently told employees that the company is entering a "code red" phase to improve ChatGPT, delaying other product rollouts to counter momentum from Google's Gemini model.
In October, Altman outlined staggering infrastructure ambitions during a livestream, stating that OpenAI has committed to developing 30 gigawatts of computing capacity for approximately $1.4 trillion.
He ultimately wants OpenAI to add 1 gigawatt of compute every week, describing it as an enormous target given that each gigawatt currently comes with a capital cost of more than $40 billion.
Both OpenAI and SoftBank are investors in Stargate, a $500 billion initiative to build AI data centers for training and inference across the United States.
The project, announced alongside President Trump and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, is considered crucial to maintaining America's technological leadership in AI development.
SoftBank's scramble to marshal funds offers a window into the extraordinary financial pressure facing even the world's largest dealmakers as they compete to finance ambitious AI infrastructure projects worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
The rush to build massive data centers has prompted tech giants, including Meta Platforms, to commit unprecedented capital to these buildouts, which require advanced chips, substantial power resources, sophisticated cooling systems, and extensive server infrastructure.
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