When a Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is setting off a global storm, OpenAI recently released a message: SoftBank Group is about to finalize USD 40 billion (CNY 290 billion) of the first round of investment in OpenAI. When the financing is completed, SoftBank will surpass Microsoft as the largest investor in OpenAI, the first of which will be paid as early as the spring, about USD 10 billion. In addition, SoftBank also plans to allocate USD 10 billion in investment quotas to other partners in the form of joint investments.
It is reported that part of the investment will be used for the "Stargate" project. The project was formed by SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle to invest in AI infrastructure in the United States. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son will serve as chairman of the Stargate project, and SoftBank will assume financial responsibility for the project. OpenAI operates the project and builds and manages the data center itself.
In January, President Trump announced the project, which has an initial investment of USD 100 billion and plans to expand to USD 500 billion over the next four years, and is expected to create 100,000 jobs in the United States.
OpenAI's rush to seek partnerships and investment comes as DeepSeek, from China, is making waves in Silicon Valley. On January 20, the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek launched the open source large model DeepSeek-R1, with performance comparable to the official version of the OpenAI o1 model, and the training cost is only about USD 6 million. This also means that huge funds and strong computing power are no longer tightly gripping the lifeblood of AI, and Chinese entrepreneurs are rewriting the global AI pattern.