SoftBank’s billionaire founder, Masayoshi Son, aims to capitalize on soaring demand for digital infrastructure, driven by the AI boom. The past year has seen a wave of multibillion-dollar deals in the space, largely focused on data centers and the computing power necessary to build and power the technology.
The need for capacity has fueled massive transactions, including BlackRock Inc.’s $40 billion purchase of Aligned Data Centers and Oracle Corp.’s agreement to supply OpenAI with about 4.5 gigawatts of computing power worth as much as $300 billion.
DigitalBridge is one of the biggest investment firms focused on digital infrastructure, with about $108 billion of assets under management at the end of September, according to its website.
DigitalBridge shares jumped 9.7% to $15.28 at 9:33 a.m. in New York, trading slightly below the sale price. The deal represents a 15% premium to DigitalBridge’s closing share price on Dec. 26, the companies said.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals.
Shares of DigitalBridge rose 45% on Dec. 5, when Bloomberg first reported the talks to take the company private. It had a market value of about $2.5 billion and an enterprise value of $3.8 billion including debt as of Friday’s close, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The deal will bring to SoftBank relationships with more investors keen to deploy money in the data center industry. DigitalBridge is led by Chief Executive Officer Marc Ganzi and its portfolio includes digital infrastructure operators such as AIMS, AtlasEdge, DataBank, Switch Inc., Vantage Data Centers and Yondr Group.
SoftBank has separately been discussing a potential acquisition of Switch, a data center operator backed by investors including DigitalBridge, Bloomberg News reported earlier in December. Switch’s owners have sought a valuation of around $50 billion including debt in a deal, people with knowledge of the matter have said.
While SoftBank’s most famous bets include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Arm Holdings Plc and WeWork, it has previously done deals in the asset management space. In 2017, it acquired Fortress Investment Group for more than $3 billion. It later sold its stake to a group including Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. and Fortress management in a deal completed in 2024.
In January, SoftBank announced the $500 billion Stargate project, alongside OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, to build data centers in the US. While Son pledged to deploy $100 billion “immediately,” the rollout of Stargate has been slower than planned, in part because of disagreements over where the data centers should be located.
SoftBank initially sought project financing from outside investors including insurance companies, pension funds and investment funds. Some of the conversations dragged due to market volatility, uncertainty around US trade policy and questions about the financial valuations of AI hardware, Bloomberg News reported in May.
SoftBank’s newest investment push has meant moving some funds around to free up capital. Son this month said he “was crying” over his need to sell a $5.8 billion Nvidia Corp. stake to reallocate the money to other AI spending.
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