Shuli Ren, Columnist

OpenAI Is So Yesterday — Even for SoftBank

May 6, 2026 at 6:00 PM UTC

Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. A former investment banker, she was a markets reporter for Barron’s. She is a CFA charterholder.

Onto the next big thing.
Photographer: Brian Kaiser/Bloomberg

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SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son is known for making audacious multibillion-dollar bets. Some acquisition deals, such as chip designer Arm Holdings Plc, have paid off nicely, while others, most notoriously WeWork Inc., became big flops. So what about OpenAI, by far Son’s largest investment?

In March, the ChatGPT maker completed a historic funding round, raising $122 billion, with SoftBank promising to put in $30 billion more. Upon completion of this follow-on investment, the Japanese conglomerate will have deployed $64.6 billion into the AI startup, for about a 13% stake.