SoftBank doubles down on "Future's Peak": plans to add $30 billion to OpenAI, S&P warns of steep increase in credit pressure.

SoftBank Group is in talks to invest up to $30 billion more in the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, the latest attempt by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son to solidify his core position in the global AI competition. According to sources familiar with the matter, the Japanese company is already one of the largest supporters of ChatGPT, the manufacturer, and is currently discussing investing more money in this rapidly growing startup. One source, who requested anonymity to discuss private negotiations, said SoftBank is considering an amount of up to $30 billion. They cautioned that negotiations are still fluid, and the amount of funding could change. SoftBank's stock rose 5.8% in the Tokyo market on Wednesday. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been meeting with top investors in the Middle East to finalize funding arrangements for a new round that could raise at least $50 billion. These sources said the manufacturer of ChatGPT is looking to raise $50 billion or more in this round, valuing it at around $750-83 billion. Negotiations are still in the early stages, and the amount could change. This potential massive investment is built on the deep cooperation between the two parties. SoftBank completed its previous commitment of $40 billion by December 31, 2025, with the final installment of about $25 billion paid through the SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF2). As of the end of last year, SoftBank's total stake in OpenAI had reached about 11%, making it one of its main external shareholders. Market analysts believe that the new investment talks reflect Son's extreme optimism about the prospects of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and his willingness to invest more capital in OpenAI's long-term development. Additionally, this new potential investment is closely related to a grand project called "Stargate" that is jointly promoted by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle Corporation (ORCL.US). The project aims to build a series of super-large AI supercomputer data centers to meet the massive computing power needed for training future AI models, with total planned investments possibly reaching trillions of dollars. Son has been reducing his positions to increase his stake in OpenAI and prepare for large-scale investments to integrate artificial intelligence into all devices. The company has sold its stake in NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) and recently halted talks to acquire U.S. data center operator Switch. The Tokyo-based company just invested $25 billion in OpenAI last month, accumulating an 11% stake. Despite SoftBank's early investments in AI technology, it missed the opportunity in the global race to build semiconductors, server racks, and other hardware that support machine learning. Most of the funds flowed to a few chip manufacturers like NVIDIA Corporation and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR (TSM.US). SoftBank Group has significantly increased its investments in the field of artificial intelligence in the past few months. In the past year, the Tokyo-based company acquired the U.S. chip design company Arm Computing for $6.5 billion and announced the $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB Limited's Siasun Robot & Automation division. To pay for part of the cost, SoftBank sold its stake in T-Mobile US (TMUS.US), divested all NVIDIA Corporation shares, and expanded margin loans by pledging shares in Arm. Global rating agency Standard & Poor's warned earlier this month that SoftBank's investments in artificial intelligence, along with the significant drop in the value of Arm's stock at the end of last year, are putting immense pressure on its credit profile.