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Editors at Squaredtech follow AI funding closely. SoftBank enters talks for a $30 billion OpenAI investment. This move adds to prior commitments. OpenAI seeks up to $100 billion total in its round. Valuation climbs to $830 billion. News broke January 27, 2026. SoftBank shares rose 3.5% in Tokyo. We break down how this OpenAI investment reshapes SoftBank’s strategy and AI competition.
SoftBank’s $30 Billion OpenAI Investment Accelerates AI Push
SoftBank Group Corp discusses a $30 billion OpenAI investment. A source close to the matter confirms details. This funding joins a larger $100 billion round for OpenAI. The deal values OpenAI at $830 billion. SoftBank doubles its stake in the ChatGPT creator. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son leads the charge.
Son commits fully to AI dominance. He styles this an “all-in” bet. SoftBank finished a $41 billion OpenAI investment in December 2025. That gave SoftBank an 11% ownership slice. OpenAI faces high costs now. Training advanced models demands massive compute power. Running inference at scale adds expenses. Google from Alphabet ramps rivalry. Google DeepMind builds competitive LLMs. OpenAI spends billions on Nvidia GPUs yearly. Costs double with each model generation.
Background shows Son’s pivot. SoftBank once focused on Vision Fund 1. That fund backed Uber and WeWork with mixed results. Losses hit $20 billion in 2019-2022. Son shifted to AI after ChatGPT’s 2022 launch. OpenAI’s user growth exploded to 300 million weekly actives by 2026. Revenue hit $5 billion annualized. Enterprise deals with Microsoft fuel cash flow. Still, losses run $5 billion annually on infra.
This $30 billion OpenAI investment builds on urgency. Reuters reported Son rushed the prior $41 billion deal. He met a year-end 2025 deadline. Vision Fund 2 paused most deals. Staff reallocated to OpenAI funding. Banks extended credit lines. SoftBank sold Alibaba stakes for liquidity. Masayoshi Son staked personal credibility. He views OpenAI as the next internet backbone.
Wall Street Journal broke the story first. SoftBank declines comment. Markets react fast. SoftBank stock (9984.T) gains 3.5% midday Tokyo. Investors see AI as SoftBank’s revival path. ARM Holdings, SoftBank’s chip design unit, powers AI inference. Synergies link hardware to OpenAI software.
OpenAI plans aggressive scaling. GPT-5 releases mid-2026. It promises reasoning leaps. Training costs $10 billion alone. Data centers expand in the U.S. and Europe. Partnerships with Oracle and CoreWeave secure capacity. Microsoft invests $13 billion already. SoftBank joins as second pillar. Valuation math works on 100x revenue multiples. AI firms trade at premiums over SaaS peers.
Son’s history informs risks. He backed Yahoo Japan early. That succeeded. WeWork collapsed at $47 billion valuation. OpenAI shows real traction. 80% of Fortune 500 use it. GitHub Copilot generates $1 billion revenue.
Our team analyzes stakes. SoftBank gains AI exposure. OpenAI funds runway. Competition heats.
OpenAI’s Cost Pressures Drive $30 Billion SoftBank Need
OpenAI grapples with soaring expenses. Model training eats compute. Frontier models like o1 need 100,000 GPUs. Each run costs $500 million. Inference scales with users. Billions of queries daily strain servers. Energy bills hit $1 billion yearly. Google counters with Gemini 2.0. It offers cheaper API pricing. Anthropic and xAI challenge too.
Revenue grows fast. ChatGPT Plus subs hit 10 million. API calls surge 50% quarterly. Microsoft Azure integration doubles enterprise adoption. Custom GPTs power teams. Still, burn rate exceeds inflows. OpenAI loses $4-6 billion yearly. $100 billion round extends horizon to 2028.
SoftBank’s prior $41 billion filled gaps. It closed December 30, 2025. CNBC confirmed completion. That round valued OpenAI at $500 billion post-money. New talks lift to $830 billion. Dilution stays low at 12%. Insiders keep control.
Masayoshi Son races peers. Saudi PIF eyes stakes. Oracle Bill Magness commits infra. Tiger Global joins rounds. SoftBank leads with scale. Vision Fund 3 launches AI-only. $100 billion corpus targets unicorns.
Regulatory scrutiny rises. FTC probes Microsoft-OpenAI ties. EU AI Act caps training data. OpenAI complies with watermarking. Safety teams test jailbreaks. This $30 billion OpenAI investment buys time for compliance.
Technical details matter. OpenAI shifts to custom chips. ASICs cut Nvidia reliance. Five-year roadmap cuts costs 90%. Strawberry project boosts reasoning. o3 model previews in Q2 2026.
Competition snapshots: Google integrates Gemini across Search, YouTube. 2 billion users access daily. Amazon trains Titan via AWS. Meta releases Llama open-source. OpenAI leads closed models. Benchmarks show GPT-4o at 90% MMLU. Rivals trail 5-10 points.
SoftBank benefits flow. ARM Neoverse cores optimize inference. OpenAI adopts for edge. SoftBank’s 90% ARM stake doubles value. Cross-pollination accelerates.
SoftBank’s Bold OpenAI Bet Reshapes AI Landscape
Son stages comebacks. Reuters noted his August 2025 pivot. Quiet bets failed before. Now he goes loud. OpenAI partnership cements Japan tech revival. SoftBank hosts Sam Altman summits. Tokyo AI hubs sprout.
Investor math adds up. SoftBank trades at 0.5x NAV. AI wins lift multiples. Shares doubled since ChatGPT boom. $30 billion deploys 20% of assets. Leverage amplifies returns.
OpenAI roadmap clarifies. Robotaxi tie-ins via multi-modal models. Enterprise agents automate workflows. Voice mode expands to calls. Search rivals Google with o4. 2026 revenue targets $20 billion.
Risks balance upsides. Chip shortages loom. Taiwan tensions disrupt TSMC. U.S. export controls hit Nvidia. OpenAI diversifies to AMD. Energy grids strain. Nuclear deals with Oklo power data centers.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund adapts. AI scouts replace broad bets. Portfolio firms like Scale AI thrive. Returns hit 3x on select deals. Markets signal approval. SoftBank volatility drops. Options imply 20% upside. Tokyo exchange volumes spike. Broader AI race intensifies. Nvidia caps at $3.5 trillion. Compute becomes currency. SoftBank positions center stage.
Squaredtech tracks flows. This $30 billion OpenAI investment marks inflection. SoftBank reclaims lead. OpenAI scales unchallenged.
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