TOKYO - SoftBank is ramping up its ambitions in the artificial intelligence sector, committing vast sums of capital and striking major strategic deals as part of an aggressive bid to position itself at the center of the AI revolution.
The company is currently negotiating a follow-on investment of up to 40 billion dollars (about 5.98 trillion yen) in OpenAI, underscoring its intent to embed itself deeply in the infrastructure underpinning generative AI. It has also agreed to acquire ABB’s robotics division in a 5.4 billion dollar deal set to close in 2026, a move that will allow SoftBank to integrate advanced robotics hardware into its growing AI ecosystem. At the same time, it is expanding its semiconductor presence with a 6.5 billion dollar purchase of U.S. chip startup Ampere Computing, a step aimed at building more control over the hardware foundations of AI.
These moves are part of a broader strategy that includes the delayed launch of SB OpenAI Japan, a 50–50 joint venture with OpenAI to deliver AI services to Japanese companies. Originally planned for the summer, the project is now expected to advance in November and will center around an AI agent service known as Cristal, which SoftBank plans to integrate into services such as PayPay and across its telecommunications network. Domestically, the company is also exploring joint data center operations with OpenAI at a former Sharp LCD plant in Osaka, part of its effort to create dedicated AI computing infrastructure in Japan.
SoftBank’s financial performance reflects the rewards of this strategy, with the group posting a 421.8 billion yen profit in the April–June quarter after four years of losses, buoyed by valuation gains from holdings in companies like OpenAI and NVIDIA. Yet the pace and scale of its investments are raising concerns. The company is reportedly seeking a 5 billion dollar loan secured by Arm shares to fund its AI push, a move that has prompted warnings about balance sheet risks and overreliance on asset valuations if market sentiment changes.
The company’s ambitions are playing out against a backdrop of an unprecedented surge in AI spending worldwide. OpenAI alone is planning investments totaling around 200 trillion yen, including the Stargate project with SoftBank and Oracle, expected to cost 500 billion dollars over four years. Additional data center projects with NVIDIA and AMD could bring total investment to 1.3 trillion dollars, or about 200 trillion yen, while OpenAI has announced it will begin mass production of custom-designed AI chips with Broadcom from the second half of next year. Elon Musk’s xAI is negotiating a 20 billion dollar funding round (about 3 trillion yen), and companies like Google and Oracle plan to invest 2.8 trillion dollars (about 420 trillion yen) in AI by 2029.
Industry analysts say such staggering figures reflect both opportunity and risk. Satoshi Oyama of Grossberg notes that AI’s potential economic impact justifies large-scale spending but warns that not all companies will be able to recoup their investments. The comparison with the dot-com era is inevitable: while the investment scale today is far larger, only a handful of companies such as Microsoft and Google have yet turned AI into significant profits, while many others still lack clear business models. OpenAI itself reported a loss exceeding 1 trillion yen in the first half of this year, with revenues of 4.3 billion dollars and operating expenses of 7.8 billion dollars, and its valuation of about 500 billion dollars remains far below its planned investment.
Investor enthusiasm has driven stock prices sharply higher, with Palantir’s shares climbing more than 24 times and NVIDIA’s more than tenfold since the release of ChatGPT in 2022. Japanese investors are shifting funds from consumer sectors to AI-related stocks, including SoftBank Group. But regulators and financial institutions are warning of potential overheating. The Bank of England has flagged AI as a possible trigger for a sudden market downturn, while the IMF has warned that a reversal in market sentiment could damage the global economy.
Despite these warnings, many experts argue that AI remains in its infancy and that growth is far from over. They predict that the next wave will focus on specialized AI systems for specific industries and applications, generating even greater economic impact. But the race to dominate this new technological frontier will inevitably leave casualties, as companies unable to build sustainable business models will struggle to recover their massive investments. In that landscape, SoftBank’s high-stakes strategy will test whether aggressive expansion and bold spending can deliver lasting leadership in the AI era.
Source: テレ東BIZ
