Ddos 
Japan’s SoftBank Group has officially announced that it completed the payment of an additional $22.5 billion investment into OpenAI last Friday (12/26). This marks the fulfillment of a pledge made by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son in March, bringing the group’s total capital injection—through direct funding and co-investment—to approximately $41 billion into the AI company.
Following the completion of the transaction, SoftBank will hold roughly 11% of OpenAI’s equity, surpassing other venture capital firms and becoming the company’s third-largest shareholder, behind only Microsoft and the OpenAI Foundation.
To pull off what has been described as the largest private fundraising round in history, SoftBank has demonstrated an unmistakable all-in commitment.
According to reports, the group adopted an aggressive asset liquidation strategy to raise the necessary capital. In addition to large-scale layoffs, SoftBank liquidated its entire NVIDIA stake last month, cashing out approximately $5.8 billion, and also sold about $4.8 billion worth of shares in T-Mobile US.
This strategy—selling the “king of chips” (the shovel) to buy into the “king of models” (the gold mine)—signals a clear shift in Masayoshi Son’s assessment of value within the AI supply chain. More precisely, it reflects his ambition to move from being a passive beneficiary of hardware growth to an active architect controlling the core intelligence of AI itself. Following OpenAI’s asset restructuring in October, which transformed it into a for-profit entity governed by a nonprofit parent (OpenAI Group PBC), the company’s ownership structure has become increasingly transparent. Its valuation has now surged to an astonishing $500 billion.
The new shareholder landscape is as follows:
- Microsoft: 27%, remaining the largest financial backer and primary compute partner.
- OpenAI Foundation: 26%, preserving its public-interest mission and governance control.
- SoftBank: 11%, the newest strategic cornerstone investor.
Masayoshi Son’s ambitions clearly extend beyond this single stake. In addition to investing in OpenAI, SoftBank recently announced a $4 billion acquisition of data center investment firm DigitalBridge.
Combined with the massive “Stargate” hyperscale data center project being planned by OpenAI and Oracle, SoftBank is attempting to assemble a fully vertical empire spanning energy, data centers, and AI models. This aligns with Son’s long-articulated vision of building a super-intelligent AI platform capable of delivering artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity. In my view, this move represents not merely a financial investment, but a high-stakes wager on the future of civilization itself.
Having missed the earliest wave of generative AI, SoftBank has effectively purchased a first-class ticket into the AI era with this $40 billion bet. While selling its booming NVIDIA stake may seem regrettable, holding NVIDIA shares offered only passive exposure to rising valuations. Becoming a core shareholder in OpenAI, by contrast, confers influence over the very direction in which AI evolves.
As Microsoft, SoftBank, and OpenAI coalesce into a new “AI iron triangle,” the AI battleground of 2026 is likely to see an even more intense head-on confrontation between this trio and the camps led by Google and Meta.
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