SoftBank
SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company that focuses on investment management.
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SoftBank Group Plans to Issue 1 Trillion Yen in Personal Bonds to Raise Funds for AI Investment
According to Nikkei News, SoftBank Group is preparing to issue corporate bonds to individual investors, with an expected issuance size of 1 trillion yen, which will become the largest corporate bond issuance to individual investors in the history of Japanese companies. This move aims to utilize funding sources such as Japanese personal savings against the backdrop of intensifying global artificial intelligence investment competition and rising funding needs. The bond has a maturity of 7 years, and issuance conditions such as the interest rate are expected to be determined in early September.
Raise
SoftBank invests $200 million in Swiss construction robot startup Gravis Robotics
According to Bloomberg, SoftBank Group invested $200 million in Swiss startup Gravis Robotics. The company is headquartered in Zurich and primarily develops autonomous driving software for construction machinery. Gravis Robotics stated that this financing is a Series A round, but did not disclose the company valuation.
AI investment platform Thrive Holdings completes $2 billion funding round, with SoftBank among participants
Odaily News: AI investment platform Thrive Holdings has announced the completion of a $2 billion funding round, valuing the company at $12 billion, with participation from SoftBank, D1 Capital Partners, and Altimeter Capital.Thrive Holdings was founded in 2025 by Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner. Unlike traditional investment firms, it does not directly invest in AI model development companies. Instead, it primarily acquires traditional service enterprises and integrates AI technology into their business processes to drive efficiency gains. The company had previously secured approximately $1 billion in initial funding. (New York Times)
AI investment platform Thrive Holdings completes $2 billion financing, SoftBank among investors
AI investment platform Thrive Holdings announced the completion of a $2 billion financing round, valuing the company at $12 billion, with participation from SoftBank, D1 Capital Partners, and Altimeter Capital, among others. Thrive Holdings was founded in 2025 by Joshua Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital. Unlike traditional investment firms, it does not directly invest in companies developing large AI models, but primarily acquires traditional service enterprises and integrates AI technology into business processes to improve efficiency. Its goal is to build platforms and products to introduce cutting-edge artificial intelligence into key industries that millions of enterprises and individuals rely on daily. The company had previously secured approximately $1 billion in initial funding.
Serenity: Unitree's IPO Sees Over 8,000x Oversubscription from Retail Investors, May Benefit Peers Like Agility Robotics
"White-Haired Stock God" Serenity posted on X, stating that Unitree Technology's IPO has seen over 8,000x oversubscription from retail investors, reflecting an "extremely huge" market demand for pure humanoid robot companies. Serenity currently holds a bullish view on investment opportunities related to the U.S. humanoid robot company Agility Robotics, a project backed by SoftBank, NVIDIA ($NVDA), Amazon ($AMZN), Foxconn, and others, with a pre-money valuation of approximately $2.5 billion.Serenity stated that Unitree Technology's perpetual contract market valuation before its IPO already indicated relatively high expectations. If the company's market cap exceeds $30 billion after listing, it could further boost market attention on leading U.S. humanoid robot companies in the next one to two weeks. Regardless of the final outcome, the market demand demonstrated by Unitree's IPO is "truly astonishing," and the humanoid robot sector is emerging as a new hotspot for global capital attention.
Agility
NVIDIA
Serenity
SoftBank Secures $10 Billion Margin Loan Using OpenAI Shares as Collateral
According to Bloomberg, SoftBank Group (SoftBank) has successfully secured a $10 billion margin loan by pledging its OpenAI shares as collateral. The loan has a two-year term, and lenders include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Mizuho Securities, Apollo Global Funding, and SMBC. SoftBank plans to complete the drawdown this month.
Apollo
摩根大通
SoftBank Releases Quarterly Report This Week, Market Focuses on Whether AI Strategy Can Surpass OpenAI Bet
According to Bloomberg, SoftBank Group will release its first-quarter earnings report in Tokyo this Thursday, with the market focusing on its latest progress in robotics, data centers, and energy sectors to assess whether the company's AI value surpasses its debt financing bet of up to $65 billion on OpenAI. Currently, there are expectations of delays to OpenAI's IPO timeline; if SoftBank can demonstrate substantial progress in the aforementioned emerging fields, it may effectively alleviate investors' concerns regarding its financing strategy.
Market
Strategy
SoftBank's Earnings Report Looms, Market Focuses on AI Investment Funding Sources and Debt Pressure
Odaily News: SoftBank will release its Q1 results for fiscal 2026 on Thursday, with the market focusing on how it will continue to fund OpenAI and AI infrastructure projects. In the fiscal year ending March 2026, SoftBank posted its highest net profit in history, but since early June this year, the company's share price has fallen by nearly half, and the cost of credit default swaps (CDS) has also climbed significantly. Additionally, SoftBank has pledged over $60 billion in investments to OpenAI and related projects, with approximately $30 billion in funding commitments due in the second half of 2026.Some analysts believe that if AI company valuations pull back, SoftBank will still face considerable pressure. Until enterprise customers truly demonstrate that AI can deliver productivity gains, SoftBank, Arm, and the memory chip sector may continue to face headwinds.
June
Market
SoftBank Subsidiary SB Payment Services to Acquire SP.LINKS to Strengthen Payment Business Layout
SB Payment Service (SBPS), a core subsidiary of Japan's SoftBank Group focused on payment business, announced an agreement with a fund under the Blackstone Group to acquire shares of the parent company of SP.LINKS (formerly Sony Payment Service). Upon completion of the transaction, SP.LINKS will become a subsidiary of SBPS. Both parties stated that they will combine SP.LINKS' accumulated expertise in payment infrastructure and service capabilities with SBPS' strengths in payment services and business foundation to further enhance the competitiveness of their payment agency business and respond to market changes driven by the adoption of cashless payments, e-commerce development, and digital technologies such as AI.
Acquire
OpenAI: ChatGPT Global Active Users Surpass 1 Billion, Enterprise Customers Exceed 2 Million
Odaily News: OpenAI announced that as of the end of July, ChatGPT's global active users surpassed 1 billion, and the number of enterprise customers exceeded 2 million.Data shows that ChatGPT gained over 1 million registered users within just 5 days of its launch, after which its user base grew rapidly, surpassing 200 million, 500 million, and 800 million users in August 2024, August 2025, and October 2025, respectively. OpenAI had previously projected internally that its user count would exceed 1 billion by the end of last year, but growth subsequently stalled, with the addition of 100 million new users taking about 5 months.OpenAI is bolstering its service competitiveness through GPT-5.6 Sol, the agent tool ChatGPT Work, as well as the lower-priced models GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-5.6 Luna. OpenAI is also advancing the Stargate project in the U.S. with Oracle and SoftBank, and building data centers in South Korea with Samsung and SK.
August
Exceed
Luna
Oracle
QnA3
Terra
Prediction market suggests probability of GPT-6 public release before September 30 rises to approximately 78%
Prediction market traders have priced the probability of OpenAI publicly releasing GPT-6 by September 30 at approximately 78%. The Polymarket related market trading volume is about $731,000, an increase of approximately $32,000 from the previous index snapshot; probability for the contract releasing before September 30 has risen to 77%, probability for release before August 31 is in the mid-30% range, and probability for release before August 21 has dropped to 15%. On Myriad, the probability for a September release has also risen to 77%, up from 64% last week. As of July 27, OpenAI has not yet publicly announced GPT-6, its technical design, or a release date. Its current flagship general-purpose model, GPT-5.6 Sol, was publicly released on July 9. OpenAI previously confirmed that GPT-5.6 Sol and a more capable pre-release model breached Hugging Face during a cybersecurity evaluation. The company also announced the addition of 250 new positions in Dublin, while SoftBank is providing financing for OpenAI's related initiatives through a $40 billion bridge loan.
August
Myriad
Polymarket
QnA3
Indian AI startup Emergent raises $130 million Series C funding, valuation reaches $1.5 billion
Indian AI coding startup Emergent has completed a $130 million Series C financing round, with a post-money valuation reaching $1.5 billion, representing a significant increase from its $300 million valuation during its Series B round in January this year. The round was led by Creaegis, with participation from Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed, Y Combinator, and others, bringing the company's total cumulative funding to $230 million.
Vision
Mercado Bitcoin Completes $20 Million Strategic Growth Funding Round with Participation from Tether
Mercado Bitcoin has announced the completion of a $20 million strategic growth funding round, with participation from Tether. SoftBank also joined this funding round. The company's primary business focuses on financial services in Brazil, covering payment infrastructure, tokenized investment products, and on-chain capital markets. (Bitcoin.com News).
Bitcoin
Bitcoin.com
Mercado Bitcoin
Tether
Paradis Labs: Agility Plans Fourth Quarter SPAC Listing via CCXI, with Approximately $640 Million in Private Placement
Odaily Odaily Planet Daily reports that Paradis Labs announced on the X platform that Agility plans to go public via a SPAC merger with CCXI around the fourth quarter, with its stock ticker changing to AGLT. Its private placement fundraising amounts to approximately $640 million, with support from investors including AMZN, NVDA, SoftBank, DCVC, among others. Approximately 100 Digit humanoid robots have been deployed across 9 facilities including those of AMZN, GXO, Schaeffler, Toyota, and MELI. In Schaeffler's 8 deployed units and GXO's 3 pre-booked deployments, accuracy rates stand at around 98%. Agility states that the payback period for owning one Digit humanoid robot is approximately 1.1 years. Orders for Digit v5 exceed $300 million, with the version slated for release in 2026; the pipeline includes over 30 customers.Agility is the first company to utilize NVDA Halos for full-stack robotics safety. Its RoboFab facility in Oregon has an annual production capacity exceeding 10,000 units, with approximately 75% of components sourced from the United States. As annual production scales up to over 10,000 units, the bill of materials cost is expected to drop from $125,000 to approximately $15,000 to $20,000. Paradis Labs indicates that, combining technology and commercialization, Agility is the most advanced among Western humanoid robot OEMs; Figure's deployment at BMW remains controversial, TSLA currently does not sell any units externally, Apptronik has no current deployments, and Boston Dynamics has robotic products but its public listing progress is slower, with no customers expected at least until 2027.
Agility
Figure
Planet
Planet
Planet
Japanese Government to Invest Up to $6.2 Billion to Support SoftBank and Others in Developing Domestic AI Foundation Models
Odaily Odaily报道，日本政府宣布将提供最高1万亿日元（约合62亿美元）资金，支持包括SoftBank Group旗下企业在内的9家公司联合开发本土人工智能基础模型，以加速追赶美国与中国在AI领域的领先优势。The plan aims to help Japan establish an independent and controllable AI technology system, strengthen "technological sovereignty," and reduce reliance on overseas large models and computing ecosystems. The project will focus on basic large model research and development, with participants including SoftBank and several other technology companies, and will primarily cover core areas such as computing infrastructure, model training, and industrial applications.The Japanese government stated that this move reflects the accelerating global AI race, where countries are speeding up the construction of local AI ecosystems through national funding and industry alliances to enhance strategic competitiveness. (Nikkei)
Foundation
Foundation
tradexyz lists SoftBank (SFTB)
tradexyz has announced the listing of SoftBank (SFTB.NE), supporting 10x leverage, with tradexyz serving as the deployer.
Masayoshi Son dismisses Musk's vision of space data centers: AI competition will still be decided on land
Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank Group, stated at the annual general meeting of SoftBank's Japanese telecom business unit on June 23 that building data centers in space holds almost no practical value, and the outcome of future AI competition will still be determined by computing infrastructure on land. Responding to a shareholder's question about whether SoftBank would follow Musk's lead in constructing space data centers, Son explicitly opposed the idea. He pointed out that while space data centers are believed to reduce electricity costs, power expenses account for only a small fraction of a data center's operating costs compared to core hardware like chips. Conversely, deploying data centers in space would also entail high rocket transportation costs, maintenance difficulties, and communication latency issues.Son emphasized that in the AI industry competition, development in the coming years is far more crucial than visions for a decade later. SoftBank will focus on building robust data center infrastructure on land and adhere to a "first-mover advantage" strategy.Additionally, SoftBank's Japanese telecom business unit is planning to enter the U.S. market for a new type of cloud computing tailored for AI (Neocloud).
June
Tether Appoints Independent Director to Twenty One Capital’s Board of Directors to Fill Audit Committee Vacancy
This seat became vacant following a transaction on May 20, when Tether acquired XXI shares held by SoftBank Group, resulting in the termination of the related governance agreement and the subsequent resignation of SoftBank Group’s representative—including one member of the audit committee—from the XXI board.
Tether
Twenty One
Twenty One Capital Faces NYSE Compliance Crisis, Stock Plummets 83% Year-to-Date
According to Protos, Twenty One Capital (ticker: XXI), a Bitcoin reserve company controlled by Tether, received an official non-compliance notice from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on May 29 due to insufficient independent directors on its Audit Committee. The company must rectify the issue by Friday, June 6; otherwise, its stock will be assigned the “BC” (Below Compliance) designation starting June 9. The incident stems from May 19, when Tether acquired all 89.1 million Class A shares held by SoftBank and canceled the corresponding Class B shares. Concurrently, Tether terminated the governance agreement granting SoftBank veto rights over the Board of Directors. As a result, the two directors appointed by SoftBank—including Jared Roscoe, a member of the Audit Committee—resigned the same day, reducing the number of independent Audit Committee members from two to one, thereby triggering the NYSE’s compliance threshold. Twenty One Capital has stated it will appoint a new independent Audit Committee member as soon as possible but has not disclosed the specific candidate or who holds the authority to make the appointment. The company currently holds 43,514 BTC, valued at approximately $3.1 billion, yet its total market capitalization remains below $2.5 billion. Amid leadership instability and multiple unfulfilled business commitments, its stock price has plunged over 83% in the past year.
Bitcoin
June
Tether
Twenty One
SoftBank plans to issue approximately $1.6 billion in subordinated bonds, primarily targeting retail investors.
According to Bloomberg, SoftBank Group Corp. plans to raise approximately $1.6 billion through a new subordinated bond issuance primarily targeting retail investors. Regulatory filings indicate the bonds have a 35-year maturity, with the issuer holding a call option exercisable after five years. The pricing is scheduled for June 5, with the initial coupon guidance set between 4.8% and 5.6% for the first five years. This marks SoftBank’s second similar retail bond offering within roughly two months.
June