SoftBank Dumps Jensen Huang and Goes Full Infrastructure Warlord With $4B Data-Center Grab

Masayoshi Son has entered his “no half-measures” era… Again.

After blowing out its entire Nvidia position for $5.8B to clear room for OpenAI, SoftBank is back with another classic Masa move… dropping $4 billion in cash to buy data-center investment firm DigitalBridge. Because when you’re all-in on AI, GPUs aren’t enough anymore. You need the entire power grid.

SoftBank announced it will acquire DigitalBridge outright for $16 per share in cash, a 15% premium to where the stock closed on December 26. The board signed off unanimously, which is another way of saying “this price is too good to fight.” Shares popped roughly 10% on the news and were up as much as 50% from earlier rumors that Bloomberg let slip.

And, of course, Masa had a vision speech locked and loaded.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said the deal would “strengthen the foundation for next-generation AI data centers” and move SoftBank closer to becoming an “Artificial Super Intelligence” platform provider… as if we all haven’t heard rumors of super intelligence for years now.

Translation: AI is hungry. AI needs power. AI needs buildings the size of Hawaii. And naturally, Masa wants to own the plumbing.

(Source: CNBC)

DigitalBridge isn’t some mom-and-pop server rack either. The firm manages roughly $108 billion in digital infrastructure assets, spanning data centers, fiber networks, towers, and connectivity projects that make ChatGPT answers appear instantly on your phone. 

CEO Marc Ganzi called the AI infrastructure build-out “one of the most significant investment opportunities of our generation,” which is such a generic statement, he must’ve asked ChatGPT to come up with a one liner. What makes this move especially on-brand is the timing.

Just last month, SoftBank confirmed it had fully exited Nvidia… specifically to fund its massive OpenAI push. That $5.83B liquidation wasn’t even the biggest trim. SoftBank also dumped $9B of T-Mobile stock, because when Masa reallocates, he does it with a wrecking ball.

As for the market’s reaction? Well, Tokyo traders weren’t happy Bob. SoftBank shares dropped more than 10% at the open, as investors processed the fact that their CEO just swapped the most valuable chip company on Earth for data centers.

To be fair, this is vintage SoftBank behavior. Masa doesn’t want exposure.. he wants dominance. He’s never been interested in the picks and shovels. He wants the mine, the electricity powering it, and the mountain it’s drilled into.

And sure, hitting SELL on Jensen Huang to go all-in on data centers might look completely irrational to some people… but let’s not forget who we’re talking about here. This is the same guy who once appointed his dog as a CEO. Normal decision-making has never really been part of the SoftBank brand.

With Masa, it sure seems like moves don’t have to make sense… they just have to be big. And this one checks all his normal boxes.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News doesn’t hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.