The Japanese investment holding company could potentially increase its investment in OpenAI, following the two companies already partnering up for The Stargate Project, which includes other investors such as Oracle and Emirati investment firm MGX.
Japanese investment holding company SoftBank is reportedly in talks to invest between $15 billion (€14.42bn) and $25bn (€24.03bn) in OpenAI, according to the Financial Times, which would be in addition to SoftBank’s commitment to The Stargate Project announced recently.
This potential deal would make SoftBank OpenAI’s largest investor, dethroning Microsoft, which is the start-up’s current biggest investor. OpenAI is the producer of the chatbot ChatGPT.
Both companies revealed earlier this month that they would be the lead partners for The Stargate Project joint venture, a large data centre project, which is expected to go a long way in helping solidify the US artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
Other initial equity funders for this are Emirati investment firm MGX and tech giant Oracle, while key initial technology partners include Microsoft, Arm and Nvidia.
OpenAI will have operational responsibility for this venture, with SoftBank having financial responsibility. Mashayoshi Son, the chief executive officer (CEO) of SoftBank will be the chairman of The Stargate Project.
The project was announced by US President Donald Trump, dubbing it “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.”
Currently, about $100bn (€96.15bn) will be invested into The Stargate Project, however, this figure is expected to soar to up to approximately $500bn (€480.73bn) in the next four years.
SoftBank will be investing over $15bn in Stargate, with OpenAI also likely to invest approximately $15bn in the project.
However, the latest investment of up to $25bn, potentially, has not been finalised yet, and could likely cover OpenAI’s Stargate share. This is being seen as an ambitious bid by SoftBank to further establish itself as a leading tech and artificial intelligence investor, while also strengthening ties with OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman.
SoftBank’s CEO, Masayoshi Son, has pointed out that securing a bigger stake in OpenAI could be crucial in furthering his aim of developing superintelligence, a futuristic artificial intelligence theory, which may outpace human cognitive ability.
Euronews has contacted SoftBank and OpenAI for comment.
Elon Musk voices concerns about Stargate
Although The Stargate Project is expected to be a landmark US artificial intelligence venture, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has pointed out concerns about its financial backing, saying that SoftBank did not have the required funds for such an ambitious project.
Musk said on Twitter: “SoftBank has well under $10bn secured. I have that on good authority.”
The Tesla CEO did not provide further details about where this significantly smaller number had come from.
However, Sam Altman was quick to refute this statement with another tweet.
A previous report by the Financial Times has highlighted other concerns pointed out by people familiar with the project, regarding structure and financing, as Stargate will not be getting any government financial support. There are also increasing worries about the data centre only serving OpenAI once functional, instead of the whole world.
