SoftBank has officially completed its $40 billion investment into OpenAI, finalizing one of the largest private funding commitments in technology history and cementing its position as a major force behind the global artificial intelligence buildout.
Sources familiar with the transaction told CNBC that SoftBank transferred a final $22–$22.5 billion tranche last week, completing the full funding commitment first reported earlier this year.
How the Deal Came Together
SoftBank had already invested $8 billion directly into OpenAI and syndicated an additional $10 billion alongside co-investors. With the final payment, SoftBank’s ownership stake in OpenAI now exceeds 10%, giving the firm meaningful exposure to the future of large-scale AI models and infrastructure.
The investment values OpenAI at approximately $260 billion pre-money, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s long-term dominance across generative AI, enterprise applications, and platform services.
Funding was originally structured to be deployed over 12 to 24 months, with portions earmarked to support OpenAI’s Stargate infrastructure initiative alongside Oracle and SoftBank.
AI Infrastructure Spending Enters a New Phase
The investment lands amid an unprecedented surge in spending across the AI ecosystem. OpenAI alone has committed more than $1.4 trillion toward long-term infrastructure buildouts, including partnerships with:
- Nvidia
- Advanced Micro Devices
- Broadcom
These commitments reflect the growing reality that compute capacity, power availability, and data center scale are now strategic bottlenecks in the AI race.
SoftBank Doubles Down on AI Strategy
SoftBank has been aggressively repositioning its portfolio around artificial intelligence. Earlier this week, the firm agreed to acquire DigitalBridge for $4 billion, further expanding its exposure to global data center assets.
To help fund its OpenAI investment, SoftBank also liquidated its entire $5.8 billion stake in Nvidia, a company it backed early in its growth cycle. Sources previously indicated the sale was part of a broader capital reallocation toward AI platforms rather than component suppliers.
OpenAI’s Expanding Investor Base
OpenAI continues to attract deep-pocketed strategic partners. The company has received billions in funding over the years from Microsoft, and is reportedly exploring a $10+ billion investment from Amazon.
More recently, Disney joined as an equity investor through a $1 billion deal that allows its licensed characters to be used within OpenAI’s Sora video-generation platform.
The company is also widely viewed as a future IPO candidate, though no formal timeline has been announced.
WSA Take
SoftBank’s completed $40B investment confirms what markets already know: AI is no longer just a software story — it’s an infrastructure arms race. By backing OpenAI at scale, SoftBank is positioning itself at the center of compute, power, and platform dominance. The real battle now isn’t who builds the best model, but who controls the pipes, data centers, and capital needed to run them.
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