SoftBanks Masa Son Nears His Next Big Bet: OpenAI

ImageSoftBank weighs its next big A.I.betSoftBank’s outspoken founder and C.E.O., Masa Son, has long talked about wanting to become a giant in artificial intelligence.Now, the Japanese technology investor is poised to take a stake in OpenAI, perhaps the most prominent A.I.

player around, DealBook’s Michael de la Merced hears.If a deal happens, it would finally link two of the most ambitious tech companies around.What’s happening: SoftBank’s Vision Fund unit plans to put about $500 million into OpenAI’s latest huge fund-raising round.

(Son’s plans were first reported by The Information.)That said, SoftBank isn’t leading the round: Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital is, with the venture capital firm planning to commit about $750 million, as well as $450 million from a new special purpose fund raised for the investment.SoftBank has been interested in OpenAI for some time.Last year, Son — who says he uses ChatGPT every day — is said to have met with Sam Altman, the A.I.

start-up’s C.E.O., about potential ties.That included talks for Son to provide up to $1 billion in funding to Altman and Jony Ive, the designer behind the iPhone, to create an A.I.-powered replacement for the smartphone.

Bloomberg reported that SoftBank had hoped to be part of OpenAI’s last fund-raising round, but was instead wait-listed.It’s not hard to understand SoftBank’s interest.Son tends to couch his investment theses in lofty language, telling investors last year that he wanted SoftBank to be “an architect to build the future of humankind.” And Altman has pushed governments and tech giants to create gigantic data centers around the world to supply A.I.

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