SoftBank completes $40B investment in OpenAI
31 Dec 2025

SoftBank Group has completed its massive $40 billion investment in OpenAI.

The move is one of the largest private funding rounds ever and reinforces founder Masayoshi Son's commitment to artificial intelligence (AI).

The deal was struck in March when SoftBank agreed to invest up to $40 billion into a for-profit subsidiary of OpenAI.

SoftBank's investment strategy and OpenAI's valuation
Investment details

The funding from SoftBank was a mix of direct capital and syndicated co-investment from other investors.

The initial deal valued OpenAI at about $300 billion on a post-money basis.

However, a secondary stock sale completed in October raised the company's valuation to around $500 billion, Pitchbook data revealed.

SoftBank's final investment and industry impact
Funding completion

Last week, SoftBank Group completed its last investment tranche, sending over $22 billion to OpenAI.

This came after a previous syndication of $10 billion and an investment of $8 billion in the AI company.

The Japanese conglomerate has been building one of the world's largest private technology investment programs with a focus on AI and related infrastructure like data centers.

OpenAI's role in AI spending push
Industry influence

OpenAI has become a key player in the industry-wide AI spending push. The company, along with Oracle and other stakeholders, is working on a project called "Stargate."

This multi-year data-center initiative aims to support next-generation AI models and is backed by major investors including SoftBank.