SoftBank's OpenAI Stake Faces a Reset as Funding Ambitions Cool

SoftBank Group investors spent much of the past week weighing two competing narratives: a resurgent AI trade that lifted the stock, and a quieter but potentially more consequential shift in how its most important bet plans to raise money. Reports that OpenAI has scaled back the ambitions of its current funding round weighed on the Japanese conglomerate at the open, according to Nikkei, though the shares clawed back much of that ground as the session wore on. The episode put a spotlight on the terms under which OpenAI will secure fresh capital — and what those terms mean for a stake SoftBank has already built at considerable expense. OpenAI has cut the target for its ongoing raise from USD 30 billion to USD 20 billion, the Financial Times reported.