softbank

SoftBank is raising over $11 billion through junk bonds to fund its next investment in OpenAI, highlighting the intense capital race in AI development.

SoftBank secured an upsized $11.9 billion loan to support its investment in OpenAI. The funding comes amid concerns about AI safety, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stating the company won't proceed with a public offering this year due to safety-related issues.

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, predicts that there will be 100 trillion self-replicating and self-evolving AIs in the future, stating that humans will no longer be the highest life form.

SoftBank-backed SB Energy has filed for an IPO with $439B in data-center capacity contracted backlog, with OpenAI as a major customer and investor, and Nvidia providing financing guarantees.

SoftBank is negotiating to take control of humanoid robotics company 1X Technologies at a $6 billion valuation, following a challenging fundraising attempt by 1X at a higher valuation.

Japan's TRON operating system project in the 1980s aimed to create a vertically integrated computing architecture but was hindered by US trade reports, while its embedded counterpart ITRON achieved widespread deployment.

Nvidia is investing $1.5 billion in SB Energy, a data center developer linked to SoftBank and OpenAI, to secure compute infrastructure for OpenAI's Ports-Pike project, with additional credit and plans for a large natural gas power plant.

SoftBank donated $50 million to Trump's presidential library in January, months before securing a federal lease for a massive AI data center in Ohio, prompting ethics concerns from senators.

Jensen Huang's Japan visit resulted in major deals including a national AI factory, robotics partnerships, and chip-supplier agreements, positioning Nvidia to lead Japan's physical AI era.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son predicts that artificial intelligence will require $5 trillion in annual investment by 2040 and dismisses concerns about an AI bubble.

Sierra announces a strategic partnership with SoftBank to deliver its conversational AI platform to Japanese enterprises, with SoftBank serving as exclusive sales partner and adopting the platform across its own brands.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son questions Elon Musk's orbital data center vision, arguing it won't lower costs or arrive in time for the AI race; TechCrunch podcast hosts discuss the broader compute landscape and skepticisms.

An exploration of the eccentric and often baffling presentation style of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, highlighting his unique approach to communicating with investors and the public.

Hyundai Motor Group is acquiring full control of Boston Dynamics from SoftBank for $325 million, integrating the robotics company as a wholly owned subsidiary. This move positions Hyundai to deploy Atlas humanoid robots in its factories by 2028, leveraging its industrial base to advance commercial humanoid robotics.

OpenAI is in talks to lease a massive 10-gigawatt data center in Ohio, backed by Nvidia as a financial guarantor, with costs potentially reaching $500 billion. The deal coincides with OpenAI's confidential IPO filing to fund expanding computing needs.

SoftBank plans to invest €75 billion in an AI data center in France, driven by France's ample electricity supply and President Macron's active push. This reflects a shift in AI-era compute center site selection from capital flow to a contest of energy and political environment.

SoftBank announced a plan to invest up to €75 billion ($87 billion) to build data centers in France, aiming to deliver up to 5 gigawatts of capacity, with the first phase providing 3.1 GW by 2031.

Jensen Huang highlights that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son was once the largest NVIDIA shareholder, and predicts AI could multiply global GDP to $200-500 trillion.

The article argues that OpenAI and Anthropic face a dot-com bubble-style risk as they are forced to scale enterprise adoption before technical challenges like hallucinations are fully resolved, citing SoftBank's loan difficulties as evidence of valuation gaps.

OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced five new U.S. AI data center sites for the Stargate infrastructure project, bringing total planned capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts and over $400 billion in investment over three years. The expansion includes sites in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin, with plans to reach the original $500 billion, 10-gigawatt commitment by end of 2025.