SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to invest as much as another $30 billion in Sam Altman's OpenAI, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the knowledge of the matter.
The move by SoftBank reflects CEO Masayoshi Son's ambitions to play a key role in developing artificial intelligence, which has taken over the world over the last few years.
The Japanese conglomerate, which is already one of the largest backers of the ChatGPT-maker, is adding to its stake in the company, people familiar with the matter told WSJ.
According to a separate report by Reuters quoting people with knowledge of the development, SoftBank is in deliberations to commit more capital toward the fast-growing startup.
The maximum amount SoftBank is considering is $30 billion, Reuters and WSJ reported quoting people familiar with the matter.
As per Reuters, the people cautioned that the discussions are fluid and the amount of funding could change. SoftBank’s shares rose 5.8% in Tokyo Wednesday.
OpenAI, known widely for creating AI chatbot ChatGPT, is seeking up to $100 billion in new capital from investors, the WSJ previously reported.
According to that report, the investment round could value the company to as much as $830 billion if OpenAI succeeds in raising the funds.
SoftBank's share in OpenAI
Masayoshi Son has been unwinding positions to increase its stake in OpenAI and ready capital for sweeping investments aimed at injecting AI in all devices.
SoftBank sold its stake in Nvidia Corp. and recently hit pause on talks to buy out US data centre operator Switch Inc.
The Tokyo-based company had amassed an 11% stake in OpenAI, injecting $22.5 billion just last month.
SoftBank has sharply increased its bets in AI in recent months. Over the past year, the Tokyo-based company has bought US chip designer Ampere Computing LLC for $6.5 billion and announced a $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB Ltd.’s robotics unit. To finance some of that cost, SoftBank has sold down its T-Mobile US Inc. shares, unloaded its entire Nvidia stake and expanded a margin loan using its Arm shares.
SoftBank’s investments in AI, along with the sharp drop in the value of Arm shares at the end of last year, are heaping pressure on its creditworthiness, S&P Global Ratings warned earlier this month.
Despite being early to invest in AI technologies, SoftBank has largely missed out on a global rush to build the semiconductors, server racks and other hardware to support machine learning.
