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The story
SoftBank Group is reportedly considering raising up to $100 billion (about ¥16 trillion) to fund AI investments and set up a buyout fund, according to the UK’s Financial Times. Masayoshi Son’s AI strategy is known for its stake in OpenAI and its data center investments, but has also drawn criticism over mounting debt. On 5ch threads, some see this fundraising as “a golden chance to win the bet,” while others warn it’s “madness that’s gone beyond investment” and that SoftBank “should cut its losses” — with the debate spreading to OpenAI’s profitability and past decisions like selling off NVIDIA shares.
SoftBank Group considering raising up to ¥16 trillion, FT reports
It emerged on the 9th that SoftBank Group (SBG) is aiming to raise up to $100 billion (about ¥16 trillion), the UK’s Financial Times reported. The funds are reportedly earmarked for AI investment and for setting up a buyout fund.
(details omitted)
Source: nikkei.com / Read the original article here
What people said
and you'll end up getting your data hacked
They'll hand out some V Points (a loyalty-points program) and call it settled
Looks like SoftBank's gonna win this bet lol
Either way it just means more junk
Constant data center swap-outs, nothing but e-waste
Regular people get AI features forced on them, prices go up, and all the current gear turns into junk
Baldy's rival
Speaking of which, whatever happened to that hair-growth drug you were developing, Elon?
Well, people who've been lending them money for ages are bound to get angry
it'd be weirder if they weren't
Just cut your losses already
Everyone already knows OpenAI has no future
Isn't it because if SoftBank's money doesn't get cycled back to NVIDIA through this 'circular AI investment,' the whole bicycle tips over lol
Son's about due to retire anyway, so I guess the timing works out
But if SoftBank goes under, the chain of related bankruptcies would tip Japan into a massive recession
better start bracing for it now
Existing shareholders and bondholders would take a huge hit, but even with some asset sell-offs the company itself would survive — it won't get that bad
Nah, this turd's always been running on fumes, so this is just business as usual
and they're still accelerating in that direction…
Actually, once the debt's piled up this high, correcting course from it is probably impossible anyway.
And before any of that — Son's whole thing has already gone beyond investment, into pure madness.
The grudge that drives Baldy onward
in a country whose entire national budget barely tops ¥100 trillion
You don't even need to think about it to see that's insane
Market cap can be juiced however you like through borrowing…
though manufacturers like Toyota are a different story
so I kind of get why people invest in this
True, if there were no competitors
and honestly, AI isn't something worth pouring this much money into in the first place
It's basically a weapon that can take down infrastructure too, so the development race with China can't be stopped now
just stay out of it
The revenue model isn't even established yet, but the capital spending to keep greedy users happy is just enormous lol
Watering the desert — exactly this
I feel like nobody who grabs headlines like this is going to come along again
As a businessman though, he hasn't really done that much, has he?
the century's greatest debt king lol
When he borrowed from the Saudi prince, failing to repay meant they'd pluck every hair off his head and backside, so he scrambled to pay it back lol
I guess he really is an old man now
Free users: "Go OpenAI, you got this!"
Baldy: "OpenAI goes fully paid"
Free users: "OpenAI, drop dead!"
and then it goes fully paid, users plummet, and that's the end of it lol
on current actuals they're losing about ¥1.2 trillion a year
cumulative losses are said to total as much as ¥43 trillion
the question is how much of that they can claw back by switching to paid subscriptions
But then there's the dilemma that without constant infrastructure investment the service goes stale, and they lose both free and paid users lol
A ¥43 trillion deficit is honestly insane.
It's only existed for 11 years and has racked up losses on the scale of a national budget, and it's still standing — that's wild.
Granted, the AI boom did have tons of people throwing money at anything just because it was labeled 'AI.'
his dopamine must be firing nonstop at all times
He sold off his NVIDIA shares and missed out on ¥30 trillion in profit,
which was a huge embarrassment for him as an investor,
so now, trying to redeem his name, he's bet everything on OpenAI as the clear favorite horse — and it looks like he might lose this bet too
Background and key points of this topic
SoftBank Group has a history of swinging between massive investment wins and losses, from the dot-com bubble of the 2000s to the huge Vision Fund losses in 2022, and the thread includes commentary describing him as “the man who came back after burning through 90% of his assets.” Meanwhile, experts have also flagged concerns about OpenAI’s slow path to profitability and the “circular investment” structure in which AI-related firms fund each other and place orders with each other — the thread’s cautious voices echo this same concern. That said, the specific loss figures and market-cap numbers that appear in these posts are not confirmed figures from news reporting and may include posters’ speculation or exaggeration, so they shouldn’t be taken at face value as fact.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “SoftBank Group aims to raise up to ¥16 trillion, to be allocated to AI investment and funds.”
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