Odaily Planet Daily News: According to people familiar with the matter, the deal that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are reaching is unprecedented in scale and structure, and the negotiations between the two parties are carried out in two stages. First, SoftBank will conduct an exclusive round of financing, promising to invest up to $40 billion in OpenAI. SoftBank is not expected to provide all the funds alone and has the right to invite other partners to participate in this round of financing. A person with direct knowledge of the plan said that OpenAI can approve or veto new investors. It is expected that this round of financing will value OpenAI at $260 billion.
In the second stage, SoftBank plans to initially invest about $15 billion to $20 billion in Stargate. OpenAI has agreed that no matter how much SoftBank invests in the infrastructure project, its funding amount will be equal to it.
According to three people familiar with the matter, partners including Abu Dhabi state fund MGX and Stargate equity investors intend to make further investment decisions after seeing the progress of the project.
OpenAI and SoftBank declined to comment. (FT)