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Japanese billionaire’s deal for OpenAI and Intel came after careful courting of US president

Anti-establishment and with a history of losing and gaining vast fortunes, it may be no surprise that Donald Trump and Masayoshi Son see eye-to-eye. 

But the past eight months have deepened the rapport, raising the financial stakes for both the US and Japan and creating an unofficial diplomatic channel between the SoftBank billionaire founder and the US president.

SoftBank has become a crucial foreign investor in the US. The Japanese group is increasing its stake in OpenAI and has invested $2bn in Intel while eyeing a takeover of the struggling chipmaker’s foundry business. The US government’s intention to take a 10 per cent share in Intel will intertwine the two further, as would SoftBank’s ambitious plans for a mammoth robotics and AI complex in Arizona.

While Son’s dealmaking spree has been welcomed in Washington, avoiding the suspicion faced by other outside investors, he needs to maintain his relationship with Trump should he want control over more physical and politically sensitive assets.

Nippon Steel’s tortured attempt to buy US Steel — blocked first by then-president Joe Biden — was only greenlit by Trump after he was given a “golden share”. 

“In Washington, with Trump, with those around him . . . Masa has become the go-to guy on Japan,” said Joshua Walker, chief executive of Japan Society, a non-profit focused on relationships between the two countries.

“Everyone wants Masa and Japan to be successful but any time such an important relationship . . . narrows down to one person, it can get dangerous. If it all blows up, that could have wide-ranging ramifications,” he added.

Son has been cultivating close ties to Trump ever since the president’s first term, visiting the White House repeatedly, chatting on the golf course and promising jobs and investment through the kind of grand public announcements that appeal to the US leader. 

Son is “a dealmaker who’s not afraid to take big swings, not all that different to a big real estate developer”, said a US-based executive who has worked with both men. “There’s a huge commercial element to everything Trump does: will this be good for America’s bottom line? Masa understood that very early on.”

Son’s courting started with a $50bn investment pledge in Trump Tower in December 2016. He promised a further $100bn almost a decade later when Trump was re-elected. Weeks after that, the SoftBank boss was flanked by OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle’s Larry Ellison as he promised to lead a $500bn artificial intelligence data centre project dubbed Stargate. 

“In the US, with all of these plans, it’s hard to rein him in,” said one person who is close to the billionaire.

People close to Son said he has learnt that proximity to power in the US is necessary to fulfil his ambitions — including his oft-stated goal of being the man who brings about humanity’s next stage using AI. 

“Would Masa still be investing like this in the US if Trump wasn’t there? I would argue most of this would be happening anyway. Masa sees the opportunity to invest in one of the largest infrastructure and consumer players in the world, OpenAI, and the opportunity to invest in key US chip infrastructure in the US. It’s all consistent with his strategy,” said David Gibson, an analyst with MST Financial.

So far, Son’s investments have not included control of the kind of strategic physical job-heavy assets, such as steel, that can raise political hackles. If that follows, analysts and insiders suggest that the more US employment SoftBank can plausibly create, the more protected he would be, including under any administration after Trump.

Son was burned before by the blocking of Nvidia’s acquisition of SoftBank-owned Arm, the UK chip design company, in 2021 by the Biden administration. If it had gone through, that deal could have made the Japanese group one of the largest shareholders in Nvidia.

SoftBank’s own share price has also soared more than 60 per cent this year. Some investors have bought in for the success of Arm, others for exposure to OpenAI or in the hope of capital being returned through planned public offerings from the group’s tech-heavy investment vehicles, the Vision funds. 

Investors willing to look past Son’s biggest blow-ups — most notably the billions lost on WeWork — said his biggest wins were more important: Alibaba, Arm, TikTok owner ByteDance and, they hope, OpenAI. 

Those investors are also having their bets hedged by the group’s discount to net asset value still standing at close to 40 per cent, according to SoftBank’s most recent earnings report, meaning the market values it at significantly less than the sum of its assets.

Sceptics said the discount existed because of how hard it was to quantify the risks of what Son has already announced, including raising financing for Stargate. OpenAI is also itself enmeshed in painful talks with Microsoft to allow it to move further away from its roots as a non-profit — negotiations that will affect SoftBank’s investment.

Increasingly, it seems Son’s plans will centre on the US, rather than China, where SoftBank still maintains deep ties, including the stake in ByteDance.

“SoftBank has sort of made a decision here that we’re going with the United States, not China,” said David Boling, former US trade official and director of Japan and Asia trade at Eurasia Group in Washington.

Of Korean descent and having finished high school in California and studied economics and computer science at Berkeley, Son has long cast himself as sitting halfway between Silicon Valley and Japan. That helped him strike a deal with Steve Jobs to bring the iPhone to Japan in 2008, giving SoftBank a decisive edge in mobile.

His first big move in the US came in 2013 with the $22bn purchase of telecoms group Sprint, a deal that stirred national security concerns but went through after he agreed to remove Huawei equipment. Then his closeness to Trump appeared to pay off when Sprint’s merger with T-Mobile was approved in 2020.

That proximity is becoming a cause of concern not just for some investors but for Japanese diplomats, cautiously trying to work the situation to their advantage but railing against Son’s position as a gatekeeper.

“It has sometimes been irritating that there have been discussions going on at the highest level to which bureaucrats and senior politicians are not necessarily informed or involved,” said one senior diplomatic figure in Tokyo.

The same person admitted that in a White House where normal lines of communication have been broken or changed, Japan knows that the advantages of the relationship still outweigh any discomfort — even if that balance could suddenly shift.

“The dilemma is that if [Son is] not close to Trump, he’s not usable,” said Kuihiko Miyake, visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto and a former Japanese diplomat. “If he’s too close, it’s dangerous.”

Dans une lettre adressée au chef de l’État, le diplomate Charles Kushner, en poste à Paris, pointe «l’absence d’action suffisante» du gouvernement français face à «la flambée de l’antisémitisme» dans le pays. Le Quai d’Orsay dénonce des propos «pas à la hauteur de la qualité du lien transatlantique entre la France et les États-Unis».

L’accusation ne vient cette fois-ci pas de l’État hébreu, mais des Américains. L'ambassadeur des États-Unis en France Charles Kushner dénonce «l'absence d'action suffisante» du président Emmanuel Macron contre l'antisémitisme, rejoignant les critiques du premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahou. Dans une lettre adressée au chef de l'État obtenue dimanche par l'AFP, l'ambassadeur exprime «sa profonde inquiétude face à la flambée de l'antisémitisme en France et à l'absence d'action suffisante de (son) gouvernement pour le combattre».

Argumentaire de Netanyahou

Dans sa lettre, datée de lundi, l’ambassadeur américain reprend l’argumentaire de Benjamin Netanyahou qui, ces dernières semaines, a fait preuve d’une virulence inédite à l’encontre d’Emmanuel Macron sur le sujet de l’antisémitisme, provoquant une tension d’un niveau sans précédent. Le premier ministre israélien n’a pas digéré la décision du président français de reconnaître un État palestinien en septembre, lors de l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU à New York. Dans une lettre rendue publique mardi, le dirigeant israélien avait déclaré que la décision d’Emmanuel Macron «favorise la haine des Juifs dans les rues», donnant pour illustrer son propos une liste d’agressions à caractère antisémite récentes. La réplique du chef d’État français avait été cinglante, qualifiant cette réaction d’«abjecte» tout en assurant que «la France protège et protégera toujours les Juifs».

L’ambassadeur américain à Paris, par ailleurs père du gendre de Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, charge à son tour l’Élysée. «Il ne se passe pas un jour en France sans que des Juifs soient agressés dans les rues, des synagogues et des écoles dégradées, et des entreprises appartenant à des Juifs vandalisées. Le ministère de l’Intérieur de votre propre gouvernement constate que des écoles maternelles ont été ciblées par des dégradations antisémites». Selon lui, «des déclarations qui vilipendent Israël et des gestes en reconnaissance d’un État palestinien encouragent les extrémistes, fomentent la violence et mettent en péril la judéité en France». «Aujourd’hui, ce n’est plus possible de tergiverser : l’antisionisme, c’est l’antisémitisme, point», martèle le diplomate dans sa lettre.

Le représentant des États-Unis en France s’indigne également que «presque la moitié de jeunes Français disent ne jamais avoir entendu parler de la Shoah». «La persistance d’une telle ignorance nous pousse donc à nous interroger sur le programme scolaire dans les écoles de l’Hexagone», ajoute-t-il. Vantant les actions du président Trump en la matière et la capacité à «combattre l’antisémitisme, tant que nos dirigeants ont la volonté d’agir», l’ambassadeur américain en France exhorte le président français «à agir avec résolution».

«Allégations inacceptables»

Dans un communiqué, le Quai d’Orsay a réagi dès dimanche soir, disant «réfute(r) fermement» ces «allégations inacceptables». «La montée des actes antisémites en France depuis le 7 octobre 2023 est une réalité que nous déplorons et sur laquelle les autorités françaises font preuve d’une mobilisation totale», assure le ministère des Affaires étrangères.

Pour le gouvernement français, ces propos d’un diplomate américain en poste en France violent la Convention de Vienne de 1961, qui régit les relations diplomatiques, et consacrent le «devoir de ne pas s’immiscer dans les affaires intérieures des États». De tels propos «ne sont par ailleurs pas à la hauteur de la qualité du lien transatlantique entre la France et les Etats-Unis et de la confiance qui doit en résulter, entre alliés», insiste Paris, qui annonce convoquer l’ambassadeur ce lundi 25 août.

Lorsqu’Emmanuel Macron a annoncé fin juillet que la France allait reconnaître l’État de Palestine, dans la foulée, plus d’une dizaine de pays occidentaux parmi lesquels le Canada, ainsi que l’Australie, ont appelé d’autres pays du monde à faire de même. L’Assemblée générale de l’ONU prévue en septembre prend fin précisément le 23, jour de la nouvelle année juive et date avant laquelle Benjamin Netanyahou appelle Emmanuel Macron «à remplacer la faiblesse par l’action, l’apaisement par la volonté» dans la lutte contre l’antisémitisme.

Les actes antisémites sont en nette progression en France depuis le 7-Octobre 2023, date des attaques sans précédent du Hamas contre Israël et du déclenchement de la guerre à Gaza. Le contexte est particulièrement délicat puisque vit en France la plus grande communauté juive d’Europe occidentale, avec environ 500.000 personnes, en même temps qu’une très importante communauté arabo-musulmane, très sensible au sort des Palestiniens de Gaza.

Combined company would later separate coffee and beverage units

Keurig Dr Pepper KDP -0.18%decrease; red down pointing triangle is close to a roughly $18 billion deal for European coffee company JDE Peet’s, according to people familiar with the matter.

The combined company plans to later separate its beverage and coffee units, the people said, essentially unwinding the 2018 merger that brought together Keurig and Dr Pepper.

There are no guarantees a deal will come together, as discussions could always fall apart.

JDE Peet’s, based in Amsterdam, has a market value of around $15 billion. Keurig Dr Pepper’s is around $50 billion.

Dr Pepper continues to be a popular soda. Keurig Dr Pepper also owns 7UP and Snapple and recently purchased energy drink maker Ghost. Keurig Dr Pepper’s coffee business has long struggled, as competition among coffee companies has heated up.

Public statements haranguing Israel embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France.

Dear President Macron,

On the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil, I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it.

Antisemitism has long scarred French life, but it has exploded since Hamas’s barbaric assault on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, pro-Hamas extremists and radical activists have waged a campaign of intimidation and violence across Europe. In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized. Your own Interior Ministry has reported antisemitic incidents even at preschools.

Public statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France. In today’s world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism—plain and simple.

President Trump and I have Jewish children and share Jewish grandchildren. I know how he feels about antisemitism, as do all Americans. He directed the Education Department to enforce civil-rights protections for Jewish students on university campuses, making clear that harassment and discrimination won’t be tolerated. He expanded resources for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security to safeguard synagogues and Jewish schools. He ordered strict vetting to bar entry for foreigners espousing antisemitic hatred and revoked visas for foreign agitators. He oversaw the deportation of Hamas sympathizers and cut funding to organizations promoting antisemitic incitement. And by crippling Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, he struck directly at the world’s leading state sponsor of antisemitism and terror and saved millions of lives. These measures prove that antisemitism can be fought effectively when leaders have the will to act.

Today, many French Jews fear that history will repeat itself in Europe. Parents encourage their children to emigrate; surveys show most French citizens believe another Holocaust could happen in Europe. Nearly half of French youth report never having heard of the Holocaust at all. What are children being taught in French schools if such ignorance persists?

Mr. President, I urge you to act decisively: enforce hate-crime laws without exception; ensure the safety of Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses, prosecute offenders to the fullest extent; and abandon steps that give legitimacy to Hamas and its allies.

As U.S. ambassador to France, I stand ready to work with you and with leaders across French society to forge a serious plan that addresses the roots of antisemitism and defeats it.

Public statements haranguing Israel embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France.

Dear President Macron,

On the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil, I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it.

Antisemitism has long scarred French life, but it has exploded since Hamas’s barbaric assault on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, pro-Hamas extremists and radical activists have waged a campaign of intimidation and violence across Europe. In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized. Your own Interior Ministry has reported antisemitic incidents even at preschools.

Public statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France. In today’s world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism—plain and simple.

President Trump and I have Jewish children and share Jewish grandchildren. I know how he feels about antisemitism, as do all Americans. He directed the Education Department to enforce civil-rights protections for Jewish students on university campuses, making clear that harassment and discrimination won’t be tolerated. He expanded resources for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security to safeguard synagogues and Jewish schools. He ordered strict vetting to bar entry for foreigners espousing antisemitic hatred and revoked visas for foreign agitators. He oversaw the deportation of Hamas sympathizers and cut funding to organizations promoting antisemitic incitement. And by crippling Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, he struck directly at the world’s leading state sponsor of antisemitism and terror and saved millions of lives. These measures prove that antisemitism can be fought effectively when leaders have the will to act.

Today, many French Jews fear that history will repeat itself in Europe. Parents encourage their children to emigrate; surveys show most French citizens believe another Holocaust could happen in Europe. Nearly half of French youth report never having heard of the Holocaust at all. What are children being taught in French schools if such ignorance persists?

Mr. President, I urge you to act decisively: enforce hate-crime laws without exception; ensure the safety of Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses, prosecute offenders to the fullest extent; and abandon steps that give legitimacy to Hamas and its allies.

As U.S. ambassador to France, I stand ready to work with you and with leaders across French society to forge a serious plan that addresses the roots of antisemitism and defeats it.

Watchdog previously barred bank from taking on high-risk customers over lax anti-money laundering checks

HSBC’s Swiss private bank has launched a cull of more than 1,000 wealthy Middle Eastern clients, as it faces ongoing scrutiny from regulators over high-risk clients.

The bank will be terminating its relationship with a slew of customers from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, and Egypt — many of whom have assets of more than $100mn — according to people familiar with the matter.

HSBC’s Swiss private bank has informed affected clients that they will no longer be able to use its services and will be sending out letters advising them to move their accounts elsewhere in the coming months, one of the people said.

Barry O’Byrne, chief executive of HSBC’s International Wealth and Premier Banking unit, said the bank had an “absolute commitment to both our Middle East and Swiss Wealth businesses”.

He added: “Switzerland plays a key role in how we support clients globally — it’s one of our core wealth hubs. Our strategy is to significantly grow our Wealth business and we have been doing so successfully. This strategy will see continued investment in both our Middle East and Swiss businesses to deliver best in class service to our customers.” 

The changes, which were first reported by Bloomberg News, come amid an ongoing crackdown by the Swiss banking watchdog, Finma, on HSBC for its vetting procedures of some high-risk clients. 

In 2024, HSBC’s Swiss private bank was barred from taking on prominent public figures as clients after Finma found that the bank had breached anti-money laundering legislation. The regulator found that HSBC had not undertaken the appropriate due diligence for multiple transactions between 2002 and 2015 in which more than $300mn was transferred between Lebanon and Switzerland.

The watchdog found that HSBC had “failed to recognise the indications of money laundering presented by these transactions; it likewise failed to satisfy requirements for the initiation and continuation of customer relationships with politically exposed persons, and was thus in serious breach of its due diligence obligations.” 

Finma ordered HSBC to undertake an anti-money laundering review for all its high-risk relationships with prominent public clients, known as politically exposed persons (PEPs). Finma said the bank could not start new relationships with PEPs until it had completed its review.

The bank designates clients with more than SFr100mn ($124.7mn) as being “high risk” and requiring greater due diligence. A client’s risk rating also takes into account other factors, including nationality.

HSBC revealed last month that authorities in France and Switzerland were investigating it “in connection with alleged money laundering offences in respect of two historical banking relationships”.

As HSBC is forced to cut back its client list, rivals are bolstering their wealth management teams in the Middle East to service the needs of ultra-high net worth individuals. 

While HSBC has long dominated the region’s capital market activity, it has lagged behind in private banking, and has seen the exit of several senior bankers in the division. Its Swiss unit hired Aladdin Hangari, who was a senior wealth manager at Credit Suisse, in 2023, to increase its wealth management presence in the Middle East.

Private equity fundraising slides as sector’s downturn deepens

Firms are struggling to raise money even as they offer discounts to attract new investors

Private equity firms are struggling to raise money despite offering unprecedented enticements to attract new investor cash, underscoring a sector-wide contraction that is denting the profitability of the industry.

Private equity groups raised just $592bn in the 12 months to June: their lowest tally for seven years, data from Preqin show.

The decline came even as firms offered more discounts such as management fee cuts, “early-bird discounts” for investors who commit quickly to new funds and other incentives.

They “are offering a smorgasbord of discounts”, said Marco Masotti, global head of private equity fundraising at law firm Paul Weiss, who added in a report by the firm that PE groups were “facing mounting fee pressure and agreeing to a cascade of discounts”.

The industry’s fundraising has shrunk by nearly a third from its record levels in 2021. Higher interest rates and a slowdown in dealmaking have left firms unable to sell trillions of dollars in ageing investments, causing growing frustration from investors, many of whom are now refusing to back funds.

Accentuating PE’s challenges are a flurry of newer entrants into the industry in the decade after the 2008 financial crisis, leaving the market oversaturated. It had left a record number of funds chasing every potential dollar of new investment, consultancy Bain said in June.

“There are just too many private equity managers seeking capital out there. I just don’t know how else to say it,” said Masotti.

As a result, more groups are offering discounts, such as pledging to return the transaction fees that were once charged to their clients, as well as volume-based discounts and novel terms such as caps on some legal and travel expenses.

These types of enticements have reduced net management fees paid to PE groups by about half since the global financial crisis, Bain & Co. found.

Industry leaders had hoped for a resurgence in dealmaking this year, with the slowdown rooted in firms’ inability to return cash to its investors. PE groups only returned 11 per cent of the industry’s assets to investors last year, the lowest figure since 2009, Bain calculates.

“After three years with a lack of liquidity, the rule book for fundraising has been fundamentally rewritten,” said Richard von Gusovius, global co-head of distribution at the private capital advisory Campbell Lutyens. “The investors really want their money back.”

Dealmakers had anticipated that, following a post-pandemic slump in deals and fundraising, President Donald Trump’s election combined with deregulation would lead to a revival of activity.

“That acceleration hasn't materialised the way we had expected,” said Gabrielle Joseph, a managing director at Rede Partners, a private equity fundraising advisory firm.

The challenges facing the private capital industry were exacerbated by Trump’s tariffs, which chilled activity around the end of the first quarter.

A Campbell Lutyens survey in April found that 33 per cent of limited partners aimed to slow their private market investments in the wake of Trump’s tariffs, while 8 per cent were opting for an all-out pause.

In Europe, the sector’s difficulties are exacerbated by the fact that several PE firms are fundraising simultaneously.

Advent International was seeking more than $25bn for its new fund, Permira was targeting about €17bn for its latest flagship and Bridgepoint was expected to seek roughly €8bn, according to people familiar with the matter.

The people added that BC Partners was seeking €5bn for its latest fund, and that the mid-market focused investment group Inflexion was targeting close to €3bn-€4bn for its new fund. They added that Astorg was expected to target about €4.5bn for its next vehicle.

Advent, Permira, Bridgepoint, BC, Astorg and Inflexion all declined to comment.

“Right now it’s super crowded in the European market in a way I haven’t seen before,” said Sunaina Sinha Haldea, global head of private capital advisory at Raymond James.

Some firms had postponed their fundraising to this year in the hopes of better conditions, she added. “All the ones with delayed fundraises, which are many, they wanted to go after US elections,” she said. 

A Raymond James report from July showed that about 1,500 buyout funds are aiming to raise $474bn in new funds. However, advisers warned that some funds would not be able to reach their goals as institutional investors slow their new commitments.

“[Investors] are looking at each opportunity with a bit of a kind of cool head,” Joseph at Rede Partners said. “The biggest thing that they’re really looking at is [whether] this manager . . . [is] fit for the future.”