SoftBank builds its OpenAI stake with $1.5bn investment
SoftBank is buying up $1.5bn worth of stock in OpenAI, bolstering its position in the $150bn artificial intelligence company as Masayoshi Son looks to make the Japanese group a central player in AI.
SoftBank is buying up shares in a tender offer, a mechanism to allow current and former OpenAI employees who have held their stock for more than two years to sell, according to two people familiar with the arrangement. The deal is set to close early next year.
The tender offer, first reported by CNBC, prices employee stock according to OpenAI’s last funding round, completed last month. That $6.6bn fundraise valued the company at $150bn. SoftBank invested $500mn into the company during that round.