SoftBank Group plans to acquire digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge for $4 billion.
DigitalBridge had around $108 billion of assets under management at the end of September, including AIMS, AtlasEdge, DataBank, Switch, Takanock, Vantage Data Centers, and Yondr Group.
As of August, the company had 5.4GW of data center capacity in development or operation.
Before the deal was rumored earlier this month, DigitalBridge was valued at $1.8bn. SoftBank is separately believed to be in talks to acquire Switch.
Alongside data center investments, DigitalBridge owns stakes in telecoms towers and fiber networks.
SoftBank, led by eccentric billionaire Masayoshi Son, has sought to aggressively invest in the generative AI boom, but the debt-laden company has struggled to fund its ambitions.
The company is one of the primary backers of OpenAI's Stargate data center project (and of OpenAI itself) but has yet to provide all the money it pledged.
This November, the company sold its entire stake in Nvidia for $5.83bn to help fund its OpenAI plans - a move that Son said made him cry.
DigitalBridge portfolio company Vantage is behind one of the Stargate projects, a near-gigawatt data center in Wisconsin.
“As AI transforms industries worldwide, we need more compute, connectivity, power, and scalable infrastructure,” SoftBank founder Son said.
“DigitalBridge is a leader in digital infrastructure, and this acquisition will strengthen the foundation for next-generation AI data centers, advance our vision to become a leading ASI platform provider, and help unlock breakthroughs that move humanity forward.”
DigitalBridge's CEO Marc Ganzi added: “The buildout of AI infrastructure represents one of the most significant investment opportunities of our generation.
“SoftBank shares our DNA as builders and long-term investors committed to scaling transformational digital infrastructure. Their vision, capital strength, and global network will allow us to accelerate our mission with greater flexibility, invest with a longer-term horizon on behalf of our investors, and better serve the world’s leading technology companies as they scale their AI ambitions.”
The company will continue to operate as a separately managed platform, led by Marc Ganzi, with the deal expected to close in the second half of 2026.