# SoftBank’s $60 Billion OpenAI Bet Sparks Concerns

An episode of [Big Take](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1578096201), 19 May 2026, 20 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/UVBrz8bN8aM2Xe47PEPu/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/825d4e29-b616-46f4-afd7-ae2b0013005c/763893c4-2e53-4dd3-98e5-b44f01519e0e/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=8b1dd624-a026-43e9-8b57-ae2b00130066

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has made a $60 billion bet on OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman – a commitment that has some insiders worried. On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg’s Min-Jeong Lee about how Son became captivated by Altman and what’s at stake for his reputation – and the company – as the AI race intensifies. We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer. Read more: SoftBank Founder’s Starstruck Bet on OpenAI Raises Concern Watch, from Originals: The Troubled Saga of Masa Son's $100 Billion Fund See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
[0:08] Speaker 2: There's been no shortage of drama lately surrounding open ai
[0:12] Speaker 2: and its CEO, Sam Altman, jury ruling against Elon Musk
[0:17] Speaker 2: and his trial against open Ai basically saying that he
[0:19] Speaker 2: should have brought this case sooner. Seven months before the
[0:22] Speaker 2: killing spree, a chat GBT account linked to shooter jesse
[0:26] Speaker 2: Ven Rutzler was flagged internally for abuse and enforcement. A
[0:31] Speaker 2: slew of lawsuits have been filed against open Ai. Elon
[0:35] Speaker 2: Musk sued Altman and the company for turning what was
[0:38] Speaker 2: a nonprofit into a for profit business. A jury rejected
[0:42] Speaker 2: the claims Monday, and must said he'll appeal. Then there's
[0:46] Speaker 2: the families who accuse the company of failing to prevent
[0:49] Speaker 2: chatbot interactions that they say contributed to violence and self harm.
[0:54] Speaker 2: The company's denied liability in those lawsuits. There's also reports
[0:58] Speaker 2: that open ai fail failed to meet internal sales goals
[1:02] Speaker 2: and user targets for its Ai bought chat GPT. That's
[1:06] Speaker 2: made investors nervous. But there's one open ai backer who's
[1:11] Speaker 2: standing firm Japan's most famous investor, SoftBank founder and chief
[1:16] Speaker 2: executive Masayoshi Son.
[1:18] Speaker 1: Mans Agi. Son remains very much committed to Sam Altman
[1:22] Speaker 1: and Open Ai and is seemingly unveized by all these challenges.
[1:28] Speaker 2: Minjong Lee is a technology reporter for Bloomberg based in Tokyo.
[1:33] Speaker 1: Sohn has said over and over how he uses chat
[1:36] Speaker 1: Gipt every day mad gpt is it's got mosca. He
[1:42] Speaker 1: loves the ab he loves the technology. He really believes
[1:46] Speaker 1: this will continue to change the world in a way
[1:49] Speaker 1: that is beneficial to humanity. And I think he genuinely
[1:53] Speaker 1: believes Altman is someone who will get us there.
[1:58] Speaker 2: But not everyone. It's soft Bank is as big a believer.
[2:02] Speaker 2: Bloomberg spoke to more than a dozen people familiar with
[2:05] Speaker 2: the matter, including insiders. They requested anonymity because they're not
[2:09] Speaker 2: authorized to speak to the press, but they told Bloomberg
[2:13] Speaker 2: that some executives at SoftBank are worried the relationship between
[2:17] Speaker 2: Sohn and Altmann isn't exactly equal.
[2:21] Speaker 1: Son's support for Altman is very deep and strong, and
[2:27] Speaker 1: it goes beyond financial support. But from Altman side of
[2:33] Speaker 1: what we're seeing is a dynamic where it's very business like.
[2:39] Speaker 2: That perceived imbalance is especially striking given the scale of
[2:43] Speaker 2: Son's commitment. SoftBank has pumped more than sixty billion dollars
[2:47] Speaker 2: into open Ai. That would make soft Bank the company's
[2:50] Speaker 2: second largest external shareholder, with a nearly thirteen percent stake.
[2:56] Speaker 2: It's also the biggest investment SoftBank has ever made in
[2:59] Speaker 2: a single private company.
[3:03] Speaker 1: Son has a tendency to really wholeheartedly support a specific
[3:10] Speaker 1: type of entrepreneurs.
[3:12] Speaker 2: But his devotion to a single company is now being
[3:15] Speaker 2: tested with open Ai as the AI industry enters a
[3:19] Speaker 2: fiercely competitive chapter.
[3:21] Speaker 1: Anthropic has risen at a pace that I think nobody
[3:25] Speaker 1: really saw it becoming so successful so fast, And this
[3:30] Speaker 1: all kind of adds to the growing uncertainties and the
[3:34] Speaker 1: risks of putting such a huge bet into a single
[3:38] Speaker 1: company like open Ai when you don't really know what
[3:42] Speaker 1: to expect tomorrow, next month, next year.
[3:49] Speaker 2: This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm wanha.
[3:53] Speaker 2: Every week we take you inside some of the world's
[3:55] Speaker 2: biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and
[3:59] Speaker 2: businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today in the show,
[4:03] Speaker 2: SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son's sixty billion bet on Sam Altman
[4:08] Speaker 2: and open Ai. How Son came to make such a
[4:10] Speaker 2: big investment in Altman and why what some say looks
[4:13] Speaker 2: like a lopsided relationship is triggering alarms. Masayoshi Son is
[4:24] Speaker 2: one of the most influential figures in tech investing. He
[4:28] Speaker 2: started soft bank in nineteen eighty one, selling software and
[4:31] Speaker 2: turned it into a two hundred billion dollars powerhouse built
[4:35] Speaker 2: on making bold bets on tech firms. Over time, Son
[4:39] Speaker 2: has become known for spotting winners early. It's a reputation
[4:43] Speaker 2: acknowledged by the biggest names in tech, including Nvidia CEO
[4:47] Speaker 2: Jensen Huang. Here's Huang speaking about Son at an AI
[4:50] Speaker 2: summit in Tokyo in twenty twenty.
[4:52] Speaker 3: Four Masa is the only entrepreneur, only innovator in the
[4:57] Speaker 3: world that has selected the winner and partnered with the
[5:01] Speaker 3: winner and every single generation.
[5:05] Speaker 2: In two thousand, Son backed a then unknown jack Maw
[5:09] Speaker 2: with a twenty million dollar investment. That bet turned into
[5:12] Speaker 2: a jackpot when Ali Baba went public in twenty fourteen
[5:16] Speaker 2: with a valuation of more than one hundred and sixty
[5:18] Speaker 2: billion dollars.
[5:20] Speaker 1: That deal kind of really earned him the reputation as
[5:24] Speaker 1: a venture capitalist who was able to really foresee what
[5:27] Speaker 1: the next big thing is Bloomberg's.
[5:30] Speaker 2: Min Jong Lee says Son saw something special in open
[5:33] Speaker 2: AIS Sam Altman too.
[5:35] Speaker 1: When Son first met Altman. This is according to what
[5:38] Speaker 1: Son has said publicly. He told Altman that, oh, you're
[5:42] Speaker 1: going to go for artificial general intelligence. I believe you.
[5:46] Speaker 1: I want to invest. We have reporting that a soft
[5:49] Speaker 1: Bank wanted to invest about one billion in OAI and Altman,
[5:54] Speaker 1: but around that time Altman was not actively seeking investors,
[5:58] Speaker 1: so this deal did not happen in.
[6:01] Speaker 2: Open Ai was still a nonprofit at the time, and
[6:04] Speaker 2: Altman wasn't yet the CEO. Son was focused on growing
[6:08] Speaker 2: his new Vision Fund, which he started in twenty seventeen.
[6:11] Speaker 2: He raised one hundred billion dollars and began investing in
[6:14] Speaker 2: startups like we Work, Uber and door Dash, But starting
[6:18] Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, several of those bets began running into trouble.
[6:22] Speaker 2: Perhaps the most damaging bet was a one on coworking
[6:26] Speaker 2: company we Work.
[6:27] Speaker 1: SoftBank invested billions of money into we Work, but they
[6:31] Speaker 1: had to scrap the IPO and all of the business
[6:34] Speaker 1: kind of collapsed. SoftBank had to do a huge write
[6:37] Speaker 1: down on its investment and we Work. At one point
[6:41] Speaker 1: they acknowledged they wrote down about fourteen billion.
[6:44] Speaker 2: Sohn said he made a mistake with investments in we Work.
[6:48] Speaker 2: He apologized for it at a twenty twenty three annual
[6:50] Speaker 2: shareholder meeting.
[6:53] Speaker 1: Taken in that people gave me advice, but I pushed back,
[6:57] Speaker 1: It's all my responsibility.
[6:59] Speaker 3: Adam, who was the founder, really believe that he's building.
[7:02] Speaker 1: Son publicly acknowledged that he had made a mistake with
[7:07] Speaker 1: we Work, and the company has said they should have
[7:12] Speaker 1: done more vetting in throughout the investment process of we Work.
[7:18] Speaker 2: By twenty twenty two, soft Bank had begun to recover
[7:21] Speaker 2: from the losses and the dent in Son's reputation. Son
[7:26] Speaker 2: was now ready to invest again, and open Ai was
[7:29] Speaker 2: back on his radar.
[7:30] Speaker 1: By that time, Altman was already very popular. Chat gpt
[7:35] Speaker 1: was very popular, and it had enough investors backing the company.
[7:40] Speaker 1: Soft Bank was fielding inquiries from its own shareholders, like
[7:44] Speaker 1: asking them, Ai is a big thing for soft Bank,
[7:48] Speaker 1: Why are you missing out on this company that seems
[7:50] Speaker 1: to be most important.
[7:52] Speaker 2: Son had to wait for the right moment to get involved.
[7:56] Speaker 2: That opportunity came in twenty twenty four, when open Ai
[8:00] Speaker 2: began working on a project called Stargate to build data
[8:03] Speaker 2: centers across the US.
[8:06] Speaker 1: Stargate reportedly was a project that Autman was working together
[8:11] Speaker 1: with Microsoft. But then apparently there was a time when
[8:15] Speaker 1: the discussions were going well between Microsoft and open Ai,
[8:21] Speaker 1: and saw and saw an opening.
[8:23] Speaker 2: Soon sensed relations cooling between open Ai and Microsoft, and
[8:28] Speaker 2: he pounced. In September twenty twenty four, SoftBank finally was
[8:32] Speaker 2: able to invest five hundred million dollars into the company.
[8:35] Speaker 2: Just a few months later, President Trump made a formal
[8:38] Speaker 2: announcement launching the Stargate project.
[8:40] Speaker 4: Level were joined by Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison, soft
[8:45] Speaker 4: Bank CEO, my friend Masa Masa Yoshi Son and CEO
[8:51] Speaker 4: of open Ai, and I would say the so.
[8:55] Speaker 1: From that point on, things accelerated fast. In April that year,
[9:00] Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, SoftBank announced it is committing thirty billion
[9:05] Speaker 1: into open Ai.
[9:06] Speaker 2: And in February of this year, SoftBank announced a second
[9:10] Speaker 2: thirty billion dollar investment in open Ai, bringing its total
[9:13] Speaker 2: commitment to just over sixty billion dollars.
[9:17] Speaker 1: For SoftBank, it's the single largest bed on a single
[9:21] Speaker 1: private company. Son has said multiple times that he sees
[9:26] Speaker 1: open ai Chatjibt language model as the transformational technology that
[9:33] Speaker 1: could reshape the whole world, and I think he genuinely
[9:37] Speaker 1: believes that open Ai is the company to bet on.
[9:42] Speaker 1: For a long time, he's been looking for the next
[9:45] Speaker 1: Ali Baba because the Alibaba deal was such a divining
[9:49] Speaker 1: deal that shaped Son's career as a venture capitalist, and
[9:55] Speaker 1: the return on that bed was just huge, and that's
[10:00] Speaker 1: what's kind of driving him to make such aggressive bets,
[10:05] Speaker 1: especially with companies like open Ai, and with him at
[10:11] Speaker 1: sixty eight now, I think there's a part of him
[10:14] Speaker 1: that feels that time is running out.
[10:17] Speaker 2: But Son's commitment to open Ai has raised some flags.
[10:20] Speaker 2: Mindong says some soft bank insiders she's spoken with are
[10:24] Speaker 2: growing anxious.
[10:26] Speaker 1: The worry is that it becomes a point where Son
[10:31] Speaker 1: is willing to kind of ignore potential risks in some
[10:36] Speaker 1: ways and brushes off voice of concerns from his close
[10:41] Speaker 1: lieutenants about the potential risks of investing more money in
[10:46] Speaker 1: open Ai or expanding more aggressively into data center projects.
[10:55] Speaker 2: After the break with open Ai burning, cash, competition intensifying,
[11:00] Speaker 2: and in IPO looming, what's at stake for Son and
[11:04] Speaker 2: soft bank investors In less than two years, Japan's SoftBank Group,
[11:22] Speaker 2: led by CEO Masayoshi Son, has committed sixty billion dollars
[11:26] Speaker 2: in open Ai, and by the end of this year,
[11:28] Speaker 2: soft Bank is set to control a thirteen percent stake
[11:31] Speaker 2: in the company. That kind of capital usually comes with
[11:35] Speaker 2: operational influence. For example, when Sequoya Capital invested roughly twelve
[11:39] Speaker 2: million dollars into Google in nineteen ninety nine, they bought
[11:42] Speaker 2: ten percent of the company and got a seat on
[11:45] Speaker 2: the board. Here's Minjong Lie.
[11:47] Speaker 1: There are sources who would tell me that it's a
[11:50] Speaker 1: very mutually strong relationship, and I think you can see
[11:55] Speaker 1: from different angles. But even though soft Bank is committed
[12:00] Speaker 1: to investing more than sixty billion in open Ai, they
[12:04] Speaker 1: don't have a board seat or an observer right to
[12:09] Speaker 1: open ai board.
[12:11] Speaker 2: Soft Bank sources Bloomberg spoke to say this lack of
[12:14] Speaker 2: control is concerning.
[12:16] Speaker 1: I would say it is unusual. But it turns out
[12:20] Speaker 1: that none of the top investors actually have a board
[12:25] Speaker 1: seat on open AI's board.
[12:27] Speaker 2: It's unclear whether Son pushed for a seat. Still, it's
[12:31] Speaker 2: a structure and a predicament that SoftBank's people aren't used to.
[12:35] Speaker 2: Something else. They're not used to the relationship between Son
[12:38] Speaker 2: and Altman.
[12:39] Speaker 1: What lieutenants and closed executives are used to is seeing
[12:44] Speaker 1: when Son wants to speak to someone, he would able
[12:47] Speaker 1: to call on the founder he wants and they would
[12:49] Speaker 1: be there to meet him, whereas with Altman the dynamic
[12:54] Speaker 1: is a little bit different. The worry is that when
[12:57] Speaker 1: soft Bank needs to step up about a certain concern
[13:03] Speaker 1: they may have about open Ai, it's not clear how
[13:08] Speaker 1: much leverage they would have in getting that voice through
[13:13] Speaker 1: to open Ai and Sam Altman.
[13:17] Speaker 2: In response to this story, SoftBank said it holds a
[13:20] Speaker 2: high level of conviction in open Ai and its leadership.
[13:24] Speaker 2: The two companies have built a strong strategic partnership grounded
[13:28] Speaker 2: in a shared view of where AI is headed and
[13:31] Speaker 2: what it will require at global scale. In a separate statement,
[13:35] Speaker 2: Open Ai said the companies have a great relationship and
[13:38] Speaker 2: the two are among each other's closest collaborators. But Minjong
[13:43] Speaker 2: says it's an open secret that Son can sometimes take
[13:47] Speaker 2: a gut first approach to investing.
[13:50] Speaker 1: Sahn has said himself that when he met Jackma of
[13:55] Speaker 1: Ali Baba, for example, he looked jackmind THEI and thought
[14:00] Speaker 1: like he sees this annual spirit that he would like
[14:03] Speaker 1: to support. So there is kind of that instinctive element
[14:08] Speaker 1: to it. But I think, of course, internally within soft
[14:12] Speaker 1: Bank they would say that they have a proper vetting
[14:15] Speaker 1: process for open Ai. You do have a roaster of investors,
[14:21] Speaker 1: big investors who are kind of investing huge sums of
[14:24] Speaker 1: money into open Ai.
[14:27] Speaker 2: But even with the top roster of outside investors, including
[14:30] Speaker 2: the likes of Microsoft and Amazon, they're still concern among
[14:34] Speaker 2: soft Bank insiders, and they have pushed back internally.
[14:39] Speaker 1: On multiple occasions. There have been people inside soft Bank
[14:44] Speaker 1: who would remind us on of these possibilities that you know,
[14:48] Speaker 1: maybe open Ai might not turn out to be as
[14:52] Speaker 1: successful as you would hope for.
[14:55] Speaker 2: It sounds like SoftBank might be a company that's really
[14:57] Speaker 2: dominated by Son's vision and Son himself.
[15:00] Speaker 1: I think it was always a Son company in a way,
[15:04] Speaker 1: because he built the company from scratch and he's made
[15:08] Speaker 1: all the key decisions. And there was a time in
[15:12] Speaker 1: the past where SoftBank had some key members on the
[15:16] Speaker 1: board like a Fast Retailings A Yeni and Naideks and Nagamori,
[15:23] Speaker 1: who would actually speak up when they have a view
[15:27] Speaker 1: that kind of goes against Son. But now these people
[15:31] Speaker 1: have left the board and our understanding is that there
[15:36] Speaker 1: is less outspoken voice to speak up against Son in
[15:41] Speaker 1: a very strong, forceful fashion. There are lieutenants who would
[15:45] Speaker 1: you know, raise concerns in a way, but in the
[15:49] Speaker 1: end would ultimately fold when Son has set his mind
[15:54] Speaker 1: on something.
[15:55] Speaker 2: Minjong says, these insider concerns are becoming more pressing now,
[16:00] Speaker 2: partly because the AI landscape is shifting so quickly.
[16:04] Speaker 1: Things could change so much overnight, and there's a lot
[16:07] Speaker 1: of possibilities. There's a lot of respectors that are impacting
[16:11] Speaker 1: the dynamics because you don't know if the lms are
[16:17] Speaker 1: the defining technology that will underline the new AI world
[16:21] Speaker 1: where we're talking about physical AI robots, humanoid robots, and
[16:26] Speaker 1: all these new technologies that you see in sci fi movies.
[16:31] Speaker 2: Some investors have been asking whether SoftBank should hedge its
[16:34] Speaker 2: bets by also backing Open AI's rivals like Anthropic, but
[16:39] Speaker 2: in an earning's call last week, the company's CFO said
[16:43] Speaker 2: there are no plans to do that. Instead, SoftBank has
[16:46] Speaker 2: doubled down with a massive loan package.
[16:51] Speaker 1: They are leaning a lot into debt financing, and they
[16:55] Speaker 1: recently inked a forty billion deal which I think is
[16:59] Speaker 1: the single largest debt deal that soft Bank assigned, and
[17:03] Speaker 1: it's a one year loan, which means they have to
[17:06] Speaker 1: refinance it next year, and they do need open AI's
[17:12] Speaker 1: valuation to maintain a certain level for the company to
[17:17] Speaker 1: be able to be in a comfortable position to refinance
[17:21] Speaker 1: the increasing amount of debt that it is tapping to
[17:24] Speaker 1: finance open Ai and an increasing number of other AI projects.
[17:30] Speaker 2: Earlier this year, SMP Global Ratings lowered its outlook on
[17:34] Speaker 2: soft Bank to negative from stable. The ratings agency said
[17:38] Speaker 2: the massive bets on open Ai could drain liquidity and
[17:42] Speaker 2: erode the credit quality of soft Bank's assets.
[17:45] Speaker 1: The credit market is definitely very sensitive to what soft
[17:50] Speaker 1: Bank is doing, how much money it is trying to borrow,
[17:54] Speaker 1: and CFO Goto repeatedly has said they are in a
[17:58] Speaker 1: financially healthy state and in a position to refinance as needed.
[18:04] Speaker 2: All three AI pioneers, open Ai, Anthropic and Xai that's
[18:09] Speaker 2: been acquired by SpaceX, are said to be planning IPOs.
[18:13] Speaker 2: If all three list at the same time, the competition
[18:16] Speaker 2: for capital would be intense.
[18:18] Speaker 1: If the IPO is successful, If they do succeed in
[18:22] Speaker 1: becoming a one trillion company, it'd be a huge success
[18:27] Speaker 1: for SAWN and soft Bank at vindication of their aggressive bed.
[18:32] Speaker 1: But that's a big if.
[18:34] Speaker 2: If the IPO doesn't go well for open Ai, soft
[18:37] Speaker 2: Bank could find itself in trouble and it could threaten
[18:41] Speaker 2: the rollover of the loans that soft Bank has taken
[18:44] Speaker 2: out this year.
[18:46] Speaker 1: The landscape keeps changing so fast, and there's a lot
[18:49] Speaker 1: of financial uncertainty, so you don't know what the markets
[18:54] Speaker 1: would look like a couple of months down later this year,
[18:58] Speaker 1: next year. I was speaking to a VC source who
[19:02] Speaker 1: did say, you know, you never know. Opening I could
[19:04] Speaker 1: be hugely successful and you could see a three x return,
[19:08] Speaker 1: but then at the same time it could be zero.
[19:10] Speaker 1: You know, it's that much unpredictable, And to be fair,
[19:15] Speaker 1: that's what venture capital is. It's a high risk, high
[19:18] Speaker 1: return dynamic that you embrace.
[19:29] Speaker 2: This is The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm wanha.
[19:33] Speaker 2: To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access
[19:36] Speaker 2: to all of Bloomberg dot Com, subscribe today at Bloomberg
[19:40] Speaker 2: dot com slash podcast Offer. If you liked the episode,
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[19:45] Speaker 2: wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps people find
[19:48] Speaker 2: the show, thanks for listening, See you next time.

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