SoftBank Plots $150 Billion Double Listing to Underwrite AI's Next Phase
27.05.2026 - 17:53:00 | boerse-global.de
SoftBank is preparing to unleash two blockbuster US listings that together could raise enough firepower to reshape the global artificial intelligence landscape. The Japanese conglomerate has tapped a syndicate of five international banks, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, to take its renewable-energy arm SB Energy public as soon as September 2026, with the robotics division Roze set to follow in a separate flotation that targets an even heftier valuation.
SB Energy, which already operates roughly five gigawatts of generating capacity, is being pitched to investors at more than $50 billion. The unit is spearheading the buildout of a 1.2-gigawatt data-center campus in Texas under the sprawling "Stargate" initiative — a joint venture with OpenAI that envisions total capital expenditure of $500 billion. The Texas site pairs high-performance computing infrastructure with on-site solar panels and large-scale battery storage, a direct response to the surging electricity demands of next-generation AI workloads. SoftBank and OpenAI are each contributing $500 million to the initial phase of the campus.
Roze, meanwhile, is positioning itself as the picks-and-shovels play of the AI boom. The division automates the construction of high-tech facilities, a role that management believes justifies a valuation of up to $100 billion. Analysts view Roze as the backbone for future large-scale AI projects, handling the physical buildout while SoftBank’s other units supply the computing firepower and energy.
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The twin IPOs form the cornerstone of chief executive Masayoshi Son’s strategy to pivot SoftBank from a telecom and investment conglomerate into a vertically integrated AI infrastructure giant. The company’s net profit has already surged to $11.6 billion, driven largely by a revaluation of its stake in OpenAI. But the share price has been volatile: after hitting record highs on the Tokyo Stock Exchange — buoyed by optimism around the AI supply chain and SoftBank’s holding in chip designer Arm — the stock recently tumbled more than 7% in a single session.
CEO Junichi Miyakawa is betting that the IPOs will fill the war chest for further expansion, most notably the launch of the "AI Data Center GPU Cloud" in October 2026. The platform, powered by Nvidia’s latest-generation chips, entered an internal testing phase this week. Miyakawa aims to fuse telecom infrastructure with raw computing capacity, a vision that requires deep pockets.
SMBC Nikko analysts have given the strategy a thumbs-up, pointing to SoftBank’s alignment with the AI chain’s most critical bottlenecks: energy, hardware, and site construction. The market’s near-term focus, however, is on the subscription deadlines for the SB Energy IPO this autumn. The success of that offering will determine how much liquidity SoftBank has for the next round of mega-investments — and whether Son’s $150 billion listing blueprint can hold together in a volatile rate environment.
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