SoftBank Group is in talks to invest up to $30 billion more in OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter. The potential investment would add to SoftBank’s already significant exposure to the ChatGPT maker.
The announcement comes as US AI company Anthropic is set to raise far more money than initially planned.
According to the report, the discussions are part of a much larger funding round that could raise to $100 billion for OpenAI. If completed at that level, the round could value the company at around $830 billion. The talks are ongoing, and the final terms could still change.
SoftBank’s renewed interest reflects its broader push to strengthen its position in artificial intelligence, the report says.
In December, the group completed a $41 billion investment in OpenAI, lifting its stake to about 11%. SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son has described the company as central to SoftBank’s long-term AI strategy.
Sold stake in NVIDIA
To fund its earlier OpenAI investment, SoftBank sold its NVIDIA stake for roughly $5.8 billion, a move that highlighted how aggressively it was reallocating capital toward AI.
The news of the latest talks was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Following that report, SoftBank shares closed 3.7% higher in Tokyo trading. The company declined to comment on the discussions.
OpenAI, meanwhile, continues to face mounting expenses as it scales its models and infrastructure, while competition from major players such as Google intensifies.
Both SoftBank and OpenAI are also investors in Stargate, a large data centre project aimed at supporting AI training and inference in the US.
If the talks result in a deal, it would further cement SoftBank’s role as one of OpenAI’s most important backers, while underscoring the growing financial demands of building and running cutting-edge AI systems.
