SoftBank is reportedly in discussions to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI, a portion of which may be used to finance the ChatGPT-owner’s commitment to AI joint venture (JV) Stargate.

According to the Financial Times (FT), the Japanese company is considering an investment worth between $15 billion and $25 billion.

Stargate, a JV backed by US President Donald Trump involving OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle, aims to build out AI infrastructure across the US through an initial investment of up to $100 billion

SoftBank’s potential investment would be in addition to the $15 billion it has pledged to the JV, added the report.

Meanwhile, OpenAI plans to invest approximately $15 billion in Stargate and SoftBank’s equity investment could reportedly help fund its commitment to the AI infrastructure project.

While talks are said to be in early stages, an investment of more than $15 billion could make SoftBank OpenAI’s largest individual backer, surpassing Microsoft which committed billions to the company at the start of 2023.

DeepSeek threat
The news comes as the fall-out from the emergence of DeepSeek, the China-based start-up that is rivalling OpenAI, continues.

OpenAI reportedly accused DeepSeek of using its proprietary models to train its open-source AI rival earlier this week.

According to FT, the ChatGPT-owner claims to have evidence that DeepSeek utilised its technology without authorisation, flagging concerns about a breach of its intellectual property.

The US also initiated a national security review of the Chinese AI chatbot.