SoftBank Finalizes Landmark Investment
SoftBank has fully completed its long-anticipated investment commitment to OpenAI, finalizing one of the largest single funding efforts in artificial intelligence to date. Sources familiar with the matter confirmed that the Japanese conglomerate transferred its final tranche of funding last week, bringing its total commitment to approximately $40 billion.

The last payment, estimated between $22 billion and $22.5 billion, marks the conclusion of a multi-stage deal first reported earlier this year. With the transaction now complete, SoftBank owns an estimated 11% stake in OpenAI, valuing the company at roughly $260 billion on a pre-money basis.

How the Deal Came Together
SoftBank’s investment was structured over several phases. Prior to the final transfer, the firm had directly invested $7.5 billion into OpenAI and syndicated an additional $11 billion alongside co-investors. The full aggregate commitment ultimately reached about $41 billion, according to company disclosures.

Initial reporting indicated that the funding would be deployed over a 12- to 24-month window, allowing OpenAI to steadily scale operations while expanding compute capacity. Portions of the capital are expected to support Stargate, a large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure initiative involving OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, focused on building next-generation data center capacity.

AI Infrastructure Spending Accelerates
The completion of the investment comes amid an unprecedented surge in global spending on AI infrastructure. Demand for generative AI tools, enterprise automation, and advanced models has sharply increased the need for high-performance chips, energy-intensive data centers, and high-bandwidth connectivity.

OpenAI alone has committed more than $1.4 trillion toward long-term infrastructure development, including agreements with leading semiconductor players such as Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Broadcom. These commitments reflect the scale of compute required to train and deploy frontier AI models at global scale.

SoftBank’s Broader AI Strategy
SoftBank’s OpenAI investment aligns with founder Masayoshi Son’s long-standing strategy of concentrating capital in transformative technologies. The firm was an early backer of Nvidia and has spent years repositioning its portfolio around artificial intelligence and advanced computing.

To further strengthen its AI footprint, SoftBank recently agreed to acquire data center investment firm DigitalBridge for $4 billion. At the same time, the group liquidated its entire $5.8 billion stake in Nvidia, a move that sources said was designed to help fund OpenAI-related commitments and preserve balance sheet flexibility.

OpenAI’s Expanding Investor Base
OpenAI has attracted billions in funding over the years from major technology players, most notably Microsoft, which remains a strategic partner across cloud infrastructure and enterprise distribution. The company is also reportedly preparing for a potential public offering, though no formal timeline has been announced.

Additional interest continues to build. OpenAI is said to be exploring a potential investment exceeding $10 billion from Amazon, further underscoring the strategic importance of AI platforms to cloud and e-commerce giants. Disney has also emerged as a recent backer, investing $1 billion in an equity deal tied to OpenAI’s video generation platform Sora, which enables licensed character creation for entertainment content.

Why the Investment Matters
SoftBank’s completed funding cements OpenAI’s position as one of the most heavily capitalized private technology companies in history. The deal highlights how artificial intelligence has moved from experimental innovation to core economic infrastructure, drawing unprecedented levels of long-term capital.

For investors and markets, the transaction signals that competition in AI will increasingly be defined not just by software breakthroughs, but by the ability to finance and operate massive global infrastructure at scale.