SoftBank could take major stake in OpenAI

SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI, according to reports, in a deal that would make it the biggest investor in the AI firm.

According to the FT, the deal would see the firm invest between $15 billion and $25 billion into OpenAI, and possibly more, with a source telling the publication the amount was 'a moving target'.

If completed, the investment would make SoftBank OpenAI's biggest shareholder, taking over from Microsoft, which first invested in the AI innovator in 2019.

The deal follows the announcement last week that the two companies were planning to jointly invest $100 billion in the Stargate project as lead partners - a figure that could rise to as much as $500 billion over the next four years.

This Trump-backed project is centered around the building of data centers and other AI infrastructure across the US. The SoftBank investment could cover OpenAI's financial commitment.

Founded in 2015 as a non-profit, OpenAI launched its ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022. It has raised around $20 billion in total through several funding rounds, including around $13 billion from its current main backer, Microsoft.

SoftBank took a $2 billion stake in the company, which was valued at $157 billion, last year.

OpenAI has been moving towards a for-profit structure with the creation of a public benefit corporation to oversee commercial operations. This, it hopes, will help it raise more cash from investors.

"The hundreds of billions of dollars that major companies are now investing into AI development show what it will really take for OpenAI to continue pursuing the mission," OpenAI’s board wrote in a blog post earlier this year.

Meanwhile, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has been enthusiastically backing AI technology, investing $1.5 billion in OpenAI last year. In November 2024, OpenAI allowed employees to sell around $1.5 billion worth of shares in a new tender offer to SoftBank.

According to the FT, Son sees increasing the firm's stake in OpenAI as part of his mission to help develop so-called ‘superintelligence’, outstripping the cognitive abilities of humans.

OpenAI's fortunes may have taken a bit of a hit this week, with the launch of Chinese rival AI DeepSeek - although CEO Sam Altman was chirpy.

"We will obviously deliver much better models and also it's legit invigorating to have a new competitor! we will pull up some releases," he posted on X.

"But mostly we are excited to continue to execute on our research roadmap and believe more compute is more important now than ever before to succeed at our mission. The world is going to want to use a LOT of AI, and really be quite amazed by the next gen models coming."