December 31, 2025 – SoftBank Group Corp. announced today that it has fully completed its previously pledged investment in OpenAI. On December 26, the Japanese conglomerate injected an additional 22.5billionintotheartificialintelligence(AI)researchlab,fulfillingitsMarchcommitmenttoinvestupto30 billion in two phases. With this latest infusion, SoftBank now holds approximately an 11% stake in OpenAI.
The total investment commitment, which has now reached 41billion,includes11 billion raised from third – party co – investors who oversubscribed and increased their participation. This shows strong market confidence in the AI sector and OpenAI’s potential.
To fund part of this latest investment, SoftBank took out a loan using its equity in chip – design company Arm as collateral. It also utilized its entire unused credit line of $11.5 billion. This financial maneuvering highlights SoftBank’s aggressive approach to securing funds for its AI – focused investments.
In April this year, SoftBank secured a 15billionbridgeloanfrom21financialinstitutions.Duringthe2025fiscalyear,thecompanycontinuedtoraisefundsinboththeJapaneseandoverseasbondmarkets,accumulatingatotalof9.3 billion in proceeds, excluding redemption amounts.
SoftBank’s journey of investing in OpenAI through its SoftBank Vision Fund started in September 2024. In April of the same year, the company made the initial commitment to split the investment into two stages, with the first payment of 7.5billionmadethatmonth.Then,inOctober,itdecidedtocompletetheremaining22.5 billion investment by the end of the year.
SoftBank’s top executives have expressed high hopes for OpenAI. At the shareholders’ meeting in June, Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, stated, “I believe OpenAI will eventually go public and become the company with the highest market value in the world.” In a December interview with Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Yoshimitsu Goto, SoftBank’s Chief Financial Officer, emphasized the group’s investment strategy in the AI field, saying, “We are determined to be the most solid supporter of OpenAI.”
