SOFTBANK

About SoftBank

Japanese conglomerate and major technology investor. Vision Fund is one of largest AI investors globally.

Recent News about SoftBank

• OpenAI explores $1.2 trillion funding round and delays IPO target to 2027

  Citing the Financial Times and Bloomberg, multiple outlets reported by September 16, 2026 that OpenAI is in early talks with investors about a new funding round targeting a $1.2 trillion valuation. A detailed TMTPost analysis says the company now plans to postpone its IPO to 2027 while seeking to add roughly $350 billion in value on top of its March 2026 round.

  Source: Seoul Economic Daily (English edition)2026-09-16T05:00:00.000Z

• AI slowdown fears hit stocks as oil jumps above 100 dollars

  On September 14, 2026 at 06:35 CEST, Spanish financial daily Cinco Días reported that European and U.S. equity futures were falling as investors reacted to calls from Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and other AI leaders to slow frontier AI development. The article said SoftBank and major AI chip and platform names weakened while Brent crude surged to around 108 dollars, adding macro pressure to already stretched AI valuations.

  Source: Cinco Días (El País)2026-09-14T04:35:00.000Z

• OpenAI delays IPO to 2027 citing mounting AI safety risks

  On September 12, 2026, Reuters reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune the company will not go public in 2026 and is instead looking at a potential 2027 listing. Altman said an IPO this year would be ill advised given AI safety concerns and referenced non trivial extinction risks and recent rogue agent incidents. Follow up coverage in financial media and international outlets confirmed the delay and tied it to OpenAI’s trillion dollar valuation ambitions and parallel Anthropic IPO plans.

  Source: WSAU / Reuters2026-09-12T20:38:00.000Z

• Dentsu and SoftBank unit reveal dataset for Japanese ad copy AI

  On September 1, 2026, Dentsu, Dentsu Digital and SB Intuitions announced they had built a dataset of over 116,000 human evaluations of Japanese advertising copy. The work supports a generative AI model specialized in Japanese copywriting, using LLM-as-a-judge methods and SoftBank-backed Sarashina models.

  Source: Dentsu Digital2026-09-01T21:09:29.186Z

• Open WebUI v0.11.1 adds human approvals for AI agents

  Open WebUI released version 0.11.1 on August 25 2026, adding a human-in-the-loop approval flow so tools invoked by AI agents must be explicitly allowed or denied by users before execution. The release also introduces built in model questions, a rebuilt streaming system that can cut bandwidth by up to 1000x on very long replies, and wide performance gains for large self hosted deployments. ([github.com](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/releases/tag/v0.11.1))

  Source: GitHub2026-08-25T21:17:00.000Z

• Nvidia backs Safe Superintelligence with $5B AI compute deal

  On July 27, 2026, Safe Superintelligence Inc. announced a long‑term strategic partnership with Nvidia, under which Nvidia will make a multibillion‑dollar equity investment and provide access to its next‑generation Vera Rubin systems. Fortune reported on July 28, 2026 that people familiar with the deal peg Nvidia’s investment around $5 billion, enough to expand SSI’s compute by roughly 10x.

  Source: NVIDIA Newsroom2026-07-27T00:00:00.000Z

• OpenAI Project Camellia plans 3.2 GW Georgia AI campus

  The Eastern Herald reported on July 24, 2026 that OpenAI plans to build Project Camellia, a $20 billion, 1,400-acre AI data center campus near Savannah, Georgia that will draw at least 3.2 gigawatts from Georgia Power. The article says this project is part of an expanded $750 billion AI infrastructure spending plan through 2030 and is backed by a 15-year 50 percent property tax break approved by Effingham County.

  Source: The Eastern Herald2026-07-24T05:09:36.725Z

• OpenAI Presence launches enterprise AI agent platform

  On July 22, 2026 OpenAI unveiled Presence, an enterprise product that lets companies deploy policy‑bound AI agents for customer support, sales and internal workflows. The service is in limited general availability and already powers OpenAI’s own English‑language phone support, resolving most inbound issues without human intervention.([openai.com](https://openai.com/index/introducing-openai-presence/))

  Source: OpenAI2026-07-22T00:00:00.000Z

• Nvidia and Japan launch $6.2B national physical AI factory

  Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang used a two‑day visit to Tokyo on July 15–16 to unveil plans for a “Vera Rubin” national AI factory in partnership with Japan’s Noetra sovereign AI consortium. TechCrunch reports Japan will commit up to ¥1 trillion (~$6.2 billion) over five years to physical‑AI infrastructure and a robotics coalition built on Nvidia’s Cosmos models, with the story published July 19, 2026 (US time).([techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/19/what-to-watch-for-after-jensen-huangs-japan-visit))

  Source: TechCrunch2026-07-19T21:16:00.000Z

• Japan commits ¥387.3B to Noetra AI robot foundation model project

  On June 30, 2026, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it had selected a SoftBank-led startup, Noetra, and an AIST consortium for a five-year NEDO project to develop a domestic multimodal foundation model for AI robots, budgeting ¥387.3 billion for fiscal 2026. The ministry simultaneously released a revised AI Robotics Strategy targeting deployment of 10 million AI robots in Japan by 2040.

  Source: Newsweek Japan (Reuters dispatch)2026-06-30T13:09:54.950Z