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Japanese conglomerate is in talks to spend up to $43 billion to boost the ChatGPT developer

In his newly built palace near Tokyo, lined by stone statues of Roman emperors and surrounded by an 18-hole golf course, Masayoshi Son was stewing. After declaring for years the imminent arrival of the artificial-intelligence revolution, the chief executive officer of SoftBank Group 9984 1.41%increase; green up pointing triangle had missed out on it.

“I haven’t been able to do anything,” he thought, according to a speech he gave to SoftBank investors last year. “Can I just get old like this and die?”

As it turned out, all he needed was a new golden boy. And now Son, who has a history of latching onto charismatic startup founders, has found one in Sam Altman.

In what would be the largest-ever investment in a startup, Son is preparing to put as much as $43 billion toward Altman’s OpenAI in a pair of transactions. SoftBank is in talks to invest between $15 billion and $25 billion in the ChatGPT maker as part of a blockbuster $40 billion funding round, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The round would value OpenAI at up to $300 billion—nearly double its valuation in October and an undeniable sign of Son’s confidence in its prospects.

In addition, the Japanese tech and investment conglomerate has committed $18 billion toward Stargate, a venture to build cloud computing centers for OpenAI to use, according to people familiar with the matter.

For Altman, who was traveling to Tokyo on Thursday, the tie-up provides him with a deep-pocketed backer at a critical moment. His company’s relationship with Microsoft, its biggest investor to date and longtime exclusive technology partner, has been fraying over OpenAI’s contention that it wasn’t getting enough cloud computing power. And the broader AI world has been thrown on its heels by the splashy arrival of DeepSeek, a Chinese developer of cheaply made and free-to-use AI models, which has sparked skepticism about OpenAI’s strategy of spending big on proprietary technology.

Son’s commitment to OpenAI and Stargate ensures that Altman’s company will have ample cloud computing firepower in the coming years just as it has ended the exclusivity portion of its Microsoft deal. And by leading a funding round that would be the biggest in Silicon Valley history, Son is enthusiastically endorsing Altman’s plan to keep spending gobs of cash on leading-edge AI systems.

“For all of us, the AI era represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help build a better, safer, healthier, and more prosperous future,” Son wrote in a widely distributed email message Thursday.

At an event hosted by his company in Washington, D.C., the same day, Altman praised DeepSeek’s technology as “great work” and framed its emergence in terms of U.S. competition with China.

“This is a reminder of the level of competition and the need for democratic AI to win,” he said.

Big gambler

Son’s plans for OpenAI eclipse his biggest-ever bets. The fortunes of the debt-friendly, risk-addicted CEO have been on a roller coaster since he emerged as a force in the 1990s. An early wager on Alibaba and Jack Ma was a highlight, while a failed $16 billion investment in WeWork and its co-founder Adam Neumann, was a black eye.

Son’s past few years have been turbulent. The $130 billion he spent through SoftBank’s Vision Fund unit—theoretically aimed at AI companies—resulted in middling overall returns. Meanwhile, SoftBank didn’t invest early in any of the generative AI companies that have defined the frenzy of the past two years.

Instead, it was the $32 billion purchase in 2016 of Arm Holdings, a chip-design company, that became SoftBank’s golden goose. The company surged in the halo of the AI rush after SoftBank relisted it on the Nasdaq in 2023. Arm’s stock has tripled since then, and SoftBank’s stake is worth more than $140 billion—an asset that gives Son plenty of wiggle room financially.

Borrowing against its Arm stake would be one way for SoftBank, which had around $30 billion of cash as of September and has vowed to keep a large buffer on hand, to fund OpenAI. It could also sell some assets such as its stakes in T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom, worth a combined $27 billion, according to FactSet.

SoftBank has held early talks with potential lenders to help fund its investments in OpenAI and Stargate, people familiar with the discussions said.

A blossoming bromance

Altman, one of the most charismatic and accomplished fundraisers in contemporary Silicon Valley, has talked to Son about investments dating back to at least 2017, when he ran the startup incubator Y Combinator. Altman met with Son in Tokyo, after which the SoftBank chief proposed investing in some of Y Combinator’s businesses. The talks fell apart because Son wanted to invest at larger amounts than Y Combinator’s leaders felt their business could handle, according to people familiar with the matter.

More recently, the two have discussed various projects SoftBank and OpenAI could work on together, including a potential effort to build AI chips across the world.

Over the course of 2024, Son became a convert to Altman’s vision. The SoftBank CEO gave a speech in October in which he gushed about OpenAI’s newest technology and said he had recently asked ChatGPT how to turn 10 million yen into 100 million yen—though he didn’t share its answer with the crowd.

That month, SoftBank put $500 million into a $6.6 billion fundraising round for OpenAI, though Son had wanted a larger stake, people familiar with the matter said. The next month, SoftBank launched a $1.5 billion tender offer to purchase existing shares from OpenAI employees.

Meanwhile, the SoftBank chief had been looking for just how he could make a giant AI bet. Months ago, he settled on the data-center push, according to a person familiar with the deliberations, reasoning that SoftBank could bring large chunks of cash and connections with top tech companies.

After Donald Trump’s election victory in November, the plans for Stargate began to coalesce as a way to marry SoftBank and OpenAI’s needs. Altman brought in Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, whose company was already helping launch a data center in Texas for OpenAI to use with Microsoft’s blessing.

At a January press conference with Trump at the White House, Stargate’s founders said they were committing $100 billion to the venture and aiming to spend up to $500 billion over the next four years.

OpenAI and SoftBank initially committed about $18 billion each to Stargate, with much of OpenAI’s money expected to come from the SoftBank-led round, according to people familiar with the matter. Oracle and the United Arab Emirates fund MGX are expected to contribute money as well. The value of the Texas data center will also be counted in the initial $100 billion.

They still have billions more they need to secure.