The Japanese investment giant SoftBank has officially completed its massive $40 billion investment in OpenAI, a huge vote of confidence in the company behind ChatGPT. SoftBank sent the final chunk of the money, somewhere between $22 and $22.5 billion, to the AI startup last week, according to sources familiar with the deal.
The massive investment gives SoftBank a stake of over 10% in OpenAI and solidifies its position as one of the biggest backers of the AI revolution. Some of the money is specifically earmarked for the “Stargate” project, a huge joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank to build out the AI infrastructure of the future.
This is all part of a massive spending spree in the tech world, as companies race to build the powerful data centers needed to run AI. OpenAI itself has already made over $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments over the next few years, including major deals with chipmakers Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom.
For SoftBank, this is another big bet on the future of AI. The company was an early investor in the chip giant Nvidia, and just this week, it agreed to buy a data center investment firm for $4 billion. To help fund this massive new investment in OpenAI, SoftBank recently sold its entire $5.8 billion stake in Nvidia, cashing in on the chipmaker’s incredible run.
With OpenAI reportedly preparing for an IPO and billions in funding already secured from Microsoft and other giants, this new cash infusion from SoftBank gives the AI leader even more firepower to continue its rapid expansion.
