SoftBank

SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate founded in 1981 by Masayoshi Son, operating as one of the world's largest technology investment companies. Through its Vision Fund (the largest technology-focused venture fund ever created, at over $100 billion) and direct investments, SoftBank has backed some of the most important companies in AI and technology.

SoftBank's AI footprint spans investment and infrastructure. The company made a landmark $30 billion investment in OpenAI in 2026, and its Vision Fund portfolio includes major AI-adjacent companies including ARM (whose chip designs power most mobile AI inference globally), ByteDance, and dozens of AI startups. SoftBank is also a partner in the Stargate UAE project with OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, and G42.

SoftBank's most strategically important AI asset is its majority ownership of ARM Holdings, the chip architecture company whose designs are in virtually every smartphone and an increasing number of AI edge devices. ARM's energy-efficient chip designs are critical for on-device AI inference, and the company's Neoverse server CPUs are gaining traction in data centers. Masayoshi Son has called AI the most important revolution in human history and has reoriented SoftBank's entire strategy around AI investment and infrastructure.

SoftBank has also moved from financing AI into building the physical plant for it. Its energy subsidiary SB Energy is building the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, on the site of a former uranium enrichment plant — targeting 8 gigawatts of AI compute capacity, underpinned by at least 10 gigawatts of new power generation, with construction phased from 2028.

In August 2026 the project's two open questions closed at once. OpenAI is no longer a prospective tenant but a committed one, under a 20-year lease on a campus SB Energy will own and operate; and the financing question was answered by NVIDIA, which invested $1.5 billion in SB Energy and provided credit support covering the land, power and buildings for an initial deployment of just over four gigawatts, with an option on the remaining capacity. In exchange NVIDIA is the exclusive AI compute provider at the site. SB Energy and SoftBank have committed at least $4.2 billion to regional grid infrastructure through a partnership with the utility AEP Ohio structured to protect existing ratepayers, alongside a community benefits fund that OpenAI doubled to $80 million.