SoftBank has fulfilled its $40 billion investment commitment to OpenAI, people familiar with the matter said. The Japanese investment giant made its final payment of between $22 billion and $22.5 billion last week, according to people familiar with the matter. SoftBank has previously raised $10 billion through syndicated loans and invested $8 billion directly in the ChatGPT developer.
With this investment in place, SoftBank’s stake in the company has exceeded 10%.
It was reported in February that SoftBank was finalizing a $40 billion investment in the Altman-led startup at a pre-deal valuation of $260 billion.
The funding would be paid out over a 12- to 24-month period, people familiar with the matter said at the time. Part of the funds is planned to be used to support the "Stargate" artificial intelligence infrastructure joint venture project jointly built by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank.
In recent months, companies have invested heavily in building infrastructure to cope with the boom in the market for artificial intelligence solutions and the growing demand for computing power.
OpenAI has pledged to invest more than $1.4 trillion in infrastructure over the next few years, with partners including chipmakers such as Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom.
Over the years, SoftBank has been investing heavily in technology and artificial intelligence companies, and was also one of the early investors in chip giant Nvidia. Just this Monday, the group agreed to acquire data center investment company DigitalBridge for $4 billion to further strengthen its presence in the field of artificial intelligence.
Last month, SoftBank sold out its entire stake worth $5.8 billion in chipmaker Nvidia - one of the main beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence wave. A person familiar with the matter said that the funds obtained from the cash out will be used to invest in OpenAI together with other cash flows.
It is reported that the start-up is preparing for an IPO. It has received billions of dollars in funding from tech giant Microsoft over the years.
It was reported earlier this month that OpenAI was exploring the possibility of bringing in more than $10 billion in investment from Amazon. In addition, Disney has invested $1 billion in it, an equity investment that allows users to generate creative content with classic Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse.