SoftBank in Talks to Buy Data-Center Investor DigitalBridge

(Bloomberg) — SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to acquire DigitalBridge Group Inc., a private equity firm that invests in assets such as data centers, as it seeks to take advantage of an AI-driven boom in digital infrastructure, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Japanese conglomerate is negotiating a potential deal to buy New York-listed DigitalBridge and take it private, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential.

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Shares of DigitalBridge, which had fallen 13% this year before Friday, rose 45% in New York trading for the their biggest-ever one-day gain. The shares closed at $14.12, giving the company a market value of $2.58 billion.

SoftBank’s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son is trying to capitalize on soaring demand for the computing capacity that underpins artificial intelligence applications. A transaction could come together as soon as the coming weeks, though deliberations are ongoing and there’s no certainty they will lead to an agreement, the people said.

Representatives for SoftBank and DigitalBridge declined to comment.

DigitalBridge, led by Chief Executive Officer Marc Ganzi, had about $108 billion of assets under management at the end of September, according to its website. Its portfolio includes digital infrastructure operators such as AIMS, AtlasEdge, DataBank, Switch, Vantage Data Centers and Yondr Group.

Raymond James research analyst Ric Prentiss said in an Oct. 30 research note that it makes sense for a larger alternative asset manager that has scale and fundraising infrastructure to buy DigitalBridge rather than it remain standalone.

“We feel DigitalBridge would consider selling, but only at the right (and much higher than current levels) cash price and terms,” Prentiss wrote.

SoftBank has previously done deals in the asset management space. In 2017, it acquired Fortress Investment Group for more than $3 billion. It eventually 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 a $500 billion project called Stargate, alongside OpenAI, Oracle Corp. and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, to build data centers in the US. While SoftBank’s 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, but some of the conversations slowed due to market volatility, uncertainty around US trade policy and questions about the financial valuations of AI hardware, Bloomberg News reported in May.

OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank announced plans in September for five new sites across Texas, New Mexico and Ohio that will eventually have a capacity of 7 gigawatts of power, or as much as some cities.

The push by SoftBank has required shifting some funds around to free up capital. Son this week said he “was crying” over his need to sell a $5.8 billion Nvidia Corp. stake to reallocate the money to other AI spending.

–With assistance from Min Jeong Lee, Dina Bass, Mayumi Negishi, Taro Fuse, Vinicy Chan and Dawn Lim.

(Updates with closing share price in third paragraph.)

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