The SoftBank Group is not just anyone in the world of Tech. This company regularly invests in companies and innovations that seem to have a bright future. She has just confirmed her strong support for OpenAI, the company that develops ChatGPT. Let’s take stock.
A winning party for SoftBank?
The Japanese firm has therefore just launched a public purchase offer to acquire $1.5 billion in OpenAI shares from the company’s employees. As is often the case, SoftBank is making this investment via its Vision Fund 2, which weighed more than $100 billion when it was launched in 2019.
According to CNBCOpenAI has authorized its employees to sell approximately $1.5 billion worth of shares to the Japanese company. This investment is in addition to the 500 million already injected into OpenAI through Vision Fund 2 during a recent financing round of the American startup.
In fact, Yoshimitsu Goto, SoftBank’s financial director, recently affirmed that the group’s financial situation has improved thanks to good results linked to its investments. As recalled the Wall Street Journalthe leader also promised: “We are preparing to take advantage of various opportunities”.
At the same time, the company’s general director, Masayoshi Son, is convinced that artificial general intelligence, a level where these technologies exceed the capabilities of humans in certain areas, will be reached within two years. at three years old. We therefore better understand this insistence on getting closer to the champion of the sector: OpenAI. However, this remains a risky bet and some specialists in this technology believe that we will not be able to obtain this type of innovation for a very long time.
SoftBank partners with Nvidia
As a reminder, SoftBank Group recently announced a partnership with Nvidia to build a supercomputer integrating the powerful Blackwell chip. This is another major turning point in the field of AI. The Japanese firm also wants to modernize its telecommunications network and adapt it to the requirements of artificial intelligence. More information on these major topics in our previous article here.
What to remember:
- SoftBank Group announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in OpenAI
- This financing would follow the 500 million dollars already injected
- The Japanese company is convinced that artificial general intelligence, a level where AI surpasses humans in certain areas, is coming very soon
