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SoftBank Group has agreed to acquire DigitalBridge, a US-based investor in data centres and telecoms infrastructure, for about $4bn, marking the latest move in Masayoshi Son’s artificial intelligence-fuelled dealmaking spree.
Son, the Japanese conglomerate’s founder and chief executive, is going all in on his bet that AI will revolutionise business and society — as well as SoftBank’s growth prospects.
Central to that effort is a mammoth investment in OpenAI, as well as SoftBank’s alliance with database group Oracle and others on a huge AI infrastructure project called Stargate, which will provide computing power for the ChatGPT maker.
DigitalBridge manages more than $100bn worth of assets, including data centres, cellular telecom towers and fibre-optic cable networks.
Son said the acquisition would “strengthen the foundation for next-generation AI data centres” as he pursues what he calls “artificial super intelligence”.
“As AI transforms industries worldwide, we need more compute, connectivity, power and scalable infrastructure,” said Son.
“The build-out of AI infrastructure represents one of the most significant investment opportunities of our generation,” said Marc Ganzi, DigitalBridge’s chief executive.
A veteran telecoms industry dealmaker, Ganzi previously founded Global Tower Partners, a US telecoms infrastructure group, which was sold for $4.8bn in 2013.
SoftBank plans to acquire DigitalBridge for $16 per share in cash, a 15 per cent premium to its closing price on Friday, the companies said. The deal gives DigitalBridge an enterprise value of roughly $4bn including debt.
DigitalBridge was founded in 1991 under the name Colony Capital by Tom Barrack, an early financial backer of US President Donald Trump.
Barrack, who now serves as the US ambassador to Turkey, in 2019 oversaw the acquisition of the data centre investor Digital Bridge for $325mn. He stepped down in 2021 as executive chair and the company changed its name to DigitalBridge as it pivoted away from traditional real estate to focus on digital infrastructure investments.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026, if it receives the necessary regulatory approvals. Ganzi would continue to run DigitalBridge as a “separately managed platform”, the companies said.
Shares in SoftBank have almost doubled in value over the course of 2025 as Son’s AI dealmaking has accelerated. However, the stock has lost a third of its value in the past two months, amid concerns about a bubble in the AI sector and SoftBank’s ability to finance its huge investment in OpenAI. In early November, SoftBank sold its entire stake in AI chipmaker Nvidia for $5.8bn to fund its dealmaking.
SoftBank’s chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto said last month that the group would need to “divest our existing portfolios” to fund more than $30bn of anticipated investment in OpenAI.
But that has not reined in Son’s dealmaking. SoftBank in October agreed a $5.4bn deal to buy ABB’s robotics arm and has discussed expanding its investment in UK-based autonomous driving start-up Wayve, the Financial Times has reported. Son also agreed to invest $2bn in troubled Silicon Valley chipmaker Intel, in the latest demonstration of his alliance with Trump.
Large investment firms have been focused on building up their data centre portfolios to get in on the AI boom, with several investors ultimately buying up specialist data centre owners, given the difficulty of building these portfolios from scratch.
Private investment group Ares earlier this year completed its takeover of the international arm of property developer GLP Capital Partners, months after rival Blue Owl bought digital infrastructure investor IPI Partners.
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