Softbank Group Corp is in talks to invest up to US$25 billion in ChatGPT owner OpenAI, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the Japanese conglomerate continues to expand into the sector.
Softbank could invest US$15 billion to US$25 billion directly into Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI, some of which may be used to pay for OpenAI’s commitment to Project Stargate, the person said.
Stargate is a Texas-based joint venture by Oracle Corp, OpenAI and Softbank that plans to invest up to US$500 billion to build data centers and other artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure to support the ChatGPT maker as well as help the US stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race.
Photo: Reuters
Softbank’s investment would be on top of the US$15 billion it has already committed to Stargate, the person said, adding that the talks are at an early stage.
The latest OpenAI investment talks were reported by the Financial Times yesterday.
The Stargate venture was announced by US President Donald Trump, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle chairman Larry Ellison at the White House last week.
However, since then, a little-known start-up from China, DeepSeek (深度求索), has upended markets with a free AI assistant it said was developed cheaply using lower-cost chips and less data than its US rivals.
Softbank’s share price surged on news of the Stargate project, but has fallen more than 12 percent since the DeepSeek-induced selloff began. Yesterday, Softbank’s shares fell as much as 2.1 percent before paring some of their losses, but the news of OpenAI investment helped lift sentiment for tech stocks more broadly.
Softbank last year took a US$1.5 billion stake in OpenAI, which was valued at US$157 billion in its last funding round, cementing its status as one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
Son’s plan to take a large stake in OpenAI and meet its Stargate commitments has been vetted by senior executives and the board at OpenAI, the Financial Times reported.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS