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Recent Articles about Softbank
Sunday Insights

AI and Crypto Companies Dominated IPO Winners in 2025

By Valida Pau · Nov 9, 2025 8:00am PST
The drought in initial public offerings ended this year, led by big winners in AI and crypto, but gains were rare for companies outside those industries. Bankers expect those trends to hold in 2026. Booms in AI and crypto delivered two of the biggest winners of the year: data center developer CoreWeave and stablecoin issuer Circle. The losers... The drought in initial public offerings ended this year, led by big winners in AI and crypto, but...
Ion Stoica. YouTube/Opaque Systems
AI Agenda

Why OpenAI CFO Said Uncle Sam Should Backstop Chip Financing; Databricks Co-Founder Responds to Benchmark Critics

By Rocket Drew and Amir Efrati · Nov 6, 2025 7:00am PST
It’s not every day one of the world’s most valuable companies asks the U.S. government for assistance, but these aren’t ordinary days. On Wednesday, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar suggested at a Wall Street Journal event that the federal government ought to guarantee the financing of AI chips. Come again?“We’re looking for an ecosystem of banks,... It’s not every day one of the world’s most valuable companies asks the U.S. government for...
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar. Photo by Getty.
Dealmaker

Why OpenAI Is Likely to Tap Private Investors Again

By Sri Muppidi · Oct 30, 2025 4:55pm PDT · 1 comment
OpenAI this week restructured itself into a company with traditional equity, and it wasn’t long before rumblings about an initial public offering followed. There are plenty of reasons why an IPO listing may not happen until 2027 at the earliest, according to a person who has been involved in the discussion. Among them: It’s likely to be one of... OpenAI this week restructured itself into a company with traditional equity, and it wasn’t long...
Mitra Chem's Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. Photo: Courtesy Mitra Chem
The Electric: In a $350 Million Strategic Shift, Trump Backs an Iron-Based Battery Startup
By Steve LeVine · Oct 30, 2025 4:30am PDT
Mitra Chem's Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. Photo: Courtesy Mitra Chem
The Electric

The Electric: In a $350 Million Strategic Shift, Trump Backs an Iron-Based Battery Startup

By Steve LeVine · Oct 30, 2025 4:30am PDT
In a surprise challenge to China’s chokehold on the most popular type of lithium-ion batteries, the Trump administration and Japan said they will invest about $350 million in a small U.S. startup that’s developing the main component in such batteries. In a surprise challenge to China’s chokehold on the most popular type of lithium-ion batteries,...
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, left, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photos via Getty

What the OpenAI Restructuring Means

By Sri Muppidi and Aaron Holmes · Oct 28, 2025 1:54pm PDT · 1 comment
OpenAI on Tuesday completed a yearlong restructuring that will allow it to one day go public, when it could raise tens of billions of dollars to help fund its costly artificial intelligence. The company will continue to be effectively controlled by a nonprofit board of directors, although the restructuring has converted the investments made by... OpenAI on Tuesday completed a yearlong restructuring that will allow it to one day go public,...
Getty Images
Dealmaker

Profit Pressure Spurs Chip Deals

By Valida Pau · Oct 28, 2025 12:41pm PDT
Giant tech companies are wreaking havoc on chipmakers, outcompeting them or shifting to new suppliers, and that’s spurring a dealmaking spree in the industry. We broke news last night about the largest chip deal of the year, Skyworks Solutions buying rival chipmaker Qorvo for $10.6 billion. Both companies, which make radio frequency chips... Giant tech companies are wreaking havoc on chipmakers, outcompeting them or shifting to new...
Art via Getty Images; Mike Sullivan
AI Agenda

Why Anthropic and OpenAI Are Using Cognition’s Coding Test

By Rocket Drew · Oct 27, 2025 7:00am PDT
As artificial intelligence models improve, the companies developing them are seeking more sophisticated ways to measure how good they are at a wide range of tasks. As a result, they are developing internal benchmarks to test models’ capabilities, rather than relying on publicly available tests.Cognition, which has created the Devin coding agent,... As artificial intelligence models improve, the companies developing them are seeking more...
SoftBank's Masayoshi Son (left) and OpenAI's Sam Altman. Photo by Getty Images
SoftBank Greenlights Remaining $22.5 Billion of OpenAI Investment
By Sri Muppidi · Oct 25, 2025 1:19pm PDT · 1 comment
SoftBank's Masayoshi Son (left) and OpenAI's Sam Altman. Photo by Getty Images
Exclusive

SoftBank Greenlights Remaining $22.5 Billion of OpenAI Investment

By Sri Muppidi · Oct 25, 2025 1:19pm PDT · 1 comment
SoftBank has taken the next step to complete its gargantuan $30 billion investment in OpenAI. The Japanese conglomerate’s board has approved a second installment of $22.5 billion on that investment, as long as the artificial intelligence startup completes a corporate restructuring that would pay the way for an eventual public offering, according... SoftBank has taken the next step to complete its gargantuan $30 billion investment in OpenAI. The...
Rodrigo Liang, Co-founder & CEO, SambaNova Systems. Getty Images.
Exclusive

AI Chip Startup SambaNova Explores Sale After Stalled Fundraising

By Valida Pau · Oct 25, 2025 7:34am PDT · 2 comments
Artificial intelligence chip startup SambaNova Systems is exploring a sale, after it struggled to complete a fundraising round, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The Palo Alto, Calif., startup was last valued at $5 billion in 2021. SambaNova and other AI chip  startups have had difficulty growing sales in the face of... Artificial intelligence chip startup SambaNova Systems is exploring a sale, after it struggled to...
Synthesia co-founder and CEO Victor Riparbelli. Getty Images
Dealmaker

Why Some AI Startup Acquisitions Are Failing

By Laura Mandaro and Katie Roof · Oct 23, 2025 2:49pm PDT · 1 comment
Over the last few days our reporters have broken news about two merger discussions that fizzled: Adobe, which was interested in buying video startup Synthesia, and SoftBank, which talked with humanoid robotics maker Agility about a takeover. In both cases, the startups ended up pursuing more venture capital funding at higher valuations.These are... Over the last few days our reporters have broken news about two merger discussions that fizzled:...
Dealmaker Newsletter
Reporters Cory Weinberg and Katie Roof tell you what’s coming next, who’s winning—and who’s losing—in the high-stakes world of startup investing.
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SoftBank CEO, Masayoshi Son. Getty Images
Exclusive

SoftBank Hunts for Humanoid Robot Startups

By Rocket Drew · Oct 23, 2025 11:11am PDT · 2 comments
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son has long predicted a future where robots would outnumber people and take over many jobs from humans. But some of SoftBank’s bets in robotics over the past 10 years, such as robot companion Pepper, have not panned out. Now the company is renewing its robot ambitions—particularly in robots that resemble humans. Late... SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son has long predicted a future where robots would outnumber people and take...
Latham & Watkins partners Seth Gottlieb (left) and Alex Kelly (right). Photo courtesy of the subjects.
AI Is Speeding Up M&A Deals, Says Latham
By Valida Pau · Oct 21, 2025 2:03pm PDT
Latham & Watkins partners Seth Gottlieb (left) and Alex Kelly (right). Photo courtesy of the subjects.
Dealmaker

AI Is Speeding Up M&A Deals, Says Latham

By Valida Pau · Oct 21, 2025 2:03pm PDT
A flurry of tech mergers and acquisitions catalyzed by the artificial intelligence boom has been big business for lawyers. Latham & Watkins, which has landed on some of the highest-profile deals, says tech is moving fast and companies are keeping pace, sometimes getting transactions done in days. “It’s speed oftentimes because the deal... A flurry of tech mergers and acquisitions catalyzed by the artificial intelligence boom has been...
Sakana AI CEO David Ha. AP Images.
Exclusive

OpenAI’s Japanese Rival Sakana in Talks to Raise Capital at $2.5 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Juro Osawa and Katie Roof · Oct 20, 2025 8:57pm PDT
Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based developer of artificial intelligence, is in talks with U.S. and Japanese investors to raise $100 million at a valuation of $2.5 billion, up 66% from a financing a year ago, according to two people involved in the discussions. The funding talks come months after CEO David Ha said publicly that the company would operate... Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based developer of artificial intelligence, is in talks with U.S. and Japanese...
Art by Clark Miller
The Arena

Moneyball for Minors: Inside the Booming Business of Youth Sports Apps

By Sara Germano · Oct 17, 2025 9:00am PDT · 3 comments
Lauren Drapp has a hectic job working as a gas scheduler for a private equity firm in Houston, triangulating natural gas between suppliers, pipelines and customers. But she’s arguably even busier as a mother of young athletes: Her two daughters, ages 12 and 13, play on club volleyball and softball teams, each traveling some eight times a year to... Lauren Drapp has a hectic job working as a gas scheduler for a private equity firm in Houston,...