In its bid to expand into the AI sector, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $25 billion into OpenAI, the ChatGPT owner, and become the company’s largest financial backer, as per a report by the Financial Times.
SoftBank could invest $15 billion to $25 billion directly into Microsoft-backed OpenAI, apart from its $15 billion commitment to Stargate, the report said, citing sources.
What Is Stargate?
Stargate is a joint venture by Oracle, OpenAI and Softbank, that plans to invest up to $500 billion to help the United States stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race.
Tech news website The Information reported previously that SoftBank was planning to invest a total $40 billion into Stargate and OpenAI and had begun talks to borrow up to $18.5 billion in financing, backed by its publicly-listed assets.
The Stargate venture was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison at the White House last week.
The DeepSeek Problem
However, since then, a little-known startup from China, DeepSeek, has upended markets with a free artificial intelligence assistant it said was developed cheaply using lower-cost chips and less data than U.S. rivals.
SoftBank’s share price surged on news of the Stargate project but has fallen more than 12% since the Deepseek-induced selloff began.
Its shares were down around 1% in morning trading on Thursday.
SoftBank CEO 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. Last year, SoftBank took a $1.5 billion stake in OpenAI.
OpenAI was valued at $157 billion in its last funding round, cementing its status as one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
OpenAI and SoftBank did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
(With inputs from Reuters)
