Companies

SoftBank to Add $30 Billion Investment into OpenAI

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Masayoshi Son, representative director, corporate officer, chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:48 JST, February 28, 2026

SoftBank Group Corp. will invest an additional $30 billion (about ¥4.7 trillion) into OpenAI Group PBC, the creator of ChatGPT, the Japanese group said Friday.

With the additional investment, SoftBank’s total investment in OpenAI is expected to total $64.6 billion, representing an about 13% stake in the U.S.-based company.

SoftBank will make the additional investment in three installments of $10 billion from April to October through an investment fund under the umbrella of the SoftBank Group. It plans to finance the investment through such measures as loans from financial institutions.

In a related move, OpenAI announced Friday that it will receive a total of $110 billion (about ¥17.2 trillion) in investment from SoftBank and two other companies — U.S. online commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. and leading U.S. semiconductor firm Nvidia Corp. According to OpenAI, Amazon will invest $50 billion and Nvidia will invest $30 billion, in addition to SoftBank’s $30 billion.

SoftBank has recently been focusing on AI-related investments. It invested $22.5 billion into OpenAI in December last year, becoming a leading shareholder with a stake about 11% in the company.