OpenAI IPO delay adds pressure to SoftBank SB Energy listing plans

In short: OpenAI’s delayed stock market listing is increasing attention on SoftBank’s plan to float SB Energy, a US data centre developer targeting a roughly $50bn valuation.

What happened

SoftBank is preparing an initial public offering, or IPO, for SB Energy in the coming weeks, according to the Financial Times. An IPO is when a company starts selling shares to the public on a stock exchange.

SB Energy is meant to build data centres, which are large buildings full of computers that power online services (like warehouses, but for internet computing). The company says it has a backlog of contracts worth $439bn in future revenue, mostly tied to 8.8 gigawatts of planned data centre capacity. However, it does not yet have a single data centre operating, and it expects much of that contract revenue to arrive from 2034 onwards.

At the same time, OpenAI has delayed its own IPO and is discussing a private funding round that could value it at about $1.2tn, the FT reported. This matters for SoftBank because it has committed more than $60bn to OpenAI, and OpenAI’s value affects SoftBank’s finances.

SB Energy’s planned projects are also closely linked to OpenAI and Nvidia. OpenAI is expected to be a tenant at SB Energy sites in Ohio and Texas, and Nvidia has agreed to provide a $105bn guarantee for the initial phase of the Ohio project. SB Energy says it may need more than $170bn in spending to build the data centres it has promised.

Why it matters

For everyday people, this is a sign of how expensive AI is to run. Tools like chatbots need huge amounts of computing power, and that means more money spent on data centres and electricity. If investors pull back, it could slow how fast new AI services and the infrastructure behind them can expand.

Source: Financial Times