SoftBank completes $4bn takeover of DigitalBridge for AI projects

In short: SoftBank has completed its takeover of DigitalBridge, a data center and digital infrastructure investor, in a deal valued at about $4bn including debt.

What happened

SoftBank’s acquisition of DigitalBridge is meant to help fund large AI-related construction projects that SoftBank may not be able to pay for on its own. DigitalBridge chief executive Marc Ganzi said the company will act as SoftBank’s “third-party infrastructure arm,” meaning it can raise money from outside investors, then put that money into projects.

Those projects include data centers, power, and other basic building blocks needed to run modern AI. A data center is a warehouse full of computers that stores and processes information. It is where AI systems do much of their work.

Ganzi said SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son wants influence across three layers of AI, which he described as a “wedding cake.” That includes AI models through SoftBank’s stake in OpenAI, chips through SoftBank-owned Arm, and the physical infrastructure, like power and data centers, through DigitalBridge. DigitalBridge’s funds have stakes in companies such as Vantage, Switch, DataBank, and Zayo, a major fiber network operator.

Why it matters

AI systems need a lot of electricity and a lot of computer capacity, and both are expensive to build. For regular people, this affects how quickly AI services can expand and how much they cost to run, similar to how building more power plants and highways can shape everyday prices and reliability. The deal also shows that even very large tech investors are looking for more outside funding to pay for the real-world infrastructure behind AI.

Source: Financial Times