SoftBank could invest another $30 billion in OpenAI
Japanese technology investor SoftBank is considering investing an additional $30 billion US dollars in OpenAI, according to Handelsblatt. However, negotiations on this are not yet concluded. SoftBank is already one of the largest financial backers of ChatGPT developer OpenAI. Just last month, the company invested $22.5 billion.
Money from Nvidia stock sale could flow into OpenAI
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son wants to play a central role in AI development. Currently, SoftBank holds an 11 percent stake in OpenAI. The market reacted positively to news of the possible renewed investment. SoftBank shares rose temporarily by up to 8.8 percent before trading up around 3.3 percent in Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon (local time).
SoftBank recently sold its stake in Nvidia (we reported on this) and halted talks about acquiring US data center Switch Inc. The capital generated from this could now flow into OpenAI. Representatives of the tech investor are currently unwilling to comment on the negotiations.
SoftBank takes major risks with investments
Although SoftBank invested early in AI technologies, the company largely missed the global rush to build semiconductors, server racks, and other hardware to support machine learning. The bulk of the money flowed to a small circle of chip manufacturers like Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
The conglomerate has significantly increased its AI investments in recent months. Last year, the Tokyo-based company acquired US chip designer Ampere Computing LLC for $6.5 billion and announced the acquisition of ABB Ltd.’s robotics division for $5.4 billion.
These investments, along with the sharp decline in Arm stock value at the end of last year, are putting pressure on the company’s creditworthiness, S&P Global Ratings warned earlier this month. OpenAI is also under pressure from competitors like Google Gemini. According to experts, Masayoshi Son is currently taking major risks with his investments.
