- SoftBank to pay approximately $4bn in cash for digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge
- Deal expands SoftBank’s AI‑linked infrastructure footprint as data centre demand rises.
What happened: SoftBank moves to acquire a major digital infrastructure player
Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group has agreed to acquire DigitalBridge Group Inc., a global digital infrastructure investor, in a deal valued at around $4bn in cash, paying $16 per share — roughly a 15 per cent premium to its closing share price on 26 December 2025. The acquisition of DigitalBridge, which manages about $108 billion in assets spanning data centres, cell towers, fibre networks and edge infrastructure, will see the firm remain an independently managed platform under current CEO Marc Ganzi after the transaction completes. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
DigitalBridge is well‑known in the sector, with stakes in companies such as Vantage Data Centers, Zayo, Switch and AtlasEdge and a broad footprint in digital infrastructure that underpins everything from cloud services to mobile connectivity.
SoftBank’s founder and chief executive Masayoshi Son framed the acquisition as a way to extend the group’s reach into core infrastructure needed for large‑scale artificial intelligence (AI) deployment. In SoftBank’s announcement, the deal is positioned as strengthening “the foundational infrastructure needed for next‑generation AI services and applications”.
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Why it’s important
The transaction comes as SoftBank doubles down on its AI strategy, having already redirected significant capital — including the sale of its entire Nvidia stake for roughly $5.8bn — to finance AI‑related investments such as its stake in OpenAI and projects like the Stargate computing initiative with Oracle.
While the deal underscores the importance of physical infrastructure — data centres, connectivity and power — in supporting AI workloads, it also raises questions about risk and timing. SoftBank’s aggressive AI spending has been met with scepticism from some investors concerned about whether these costly bets will yield commensurate returns, particularly if demand for AI capacity slows or if competition stiffens in global markets.
Critics might ask whether paying a premium in cash for DigitalBridge at a high valuation is prudent given the broader slowdown in some technology stocks and the company’s recent share price volatility. Moreover, the reliance on regulatory approval and the continuing operation of DigitalBridge as a separate entity means integration risks remain, including the potential for distraction from core operations or clashes in strategic priorities.
The acquisition also highlights a broader industry trend: as AI applications proliferate, the “picks and shovels” of the tech world — data centres, networks and edge infrastructure — are increasingly viewed as investment opportunities in their own right.
Whether this strategy will pay off over the long term, or represent an overextension by SoftBank, is likely to be a major point of debate among investors and analysts in the coming quarters.
