The race to dominate artificial intelligence is increasingly being fought far from flashy demos and model benchmarks. Instead, it’s moving into a far more concrete arena: data centers, power, and physical infrastructure. SoftBank’s $4 billion agreement to acquire DigitalBridge is a clear sign that Masayoshi Son sees the next phase of AI competition playing out at that level.
At a practical level, the deal gives SoftBank direct control over a company that specializes in building and managing digital infrastructure at scale. DigitalBridge oversees roughly $108 billion in assets tied to data centers, connectivity, and related platforms — exactly the kind of backbone needed as AI systems demand more compute, more energy, and tighter global networks. SoftBank says it will pay $16 per share in cash, a 15% premium to DigitalBridge’s late-December closing price, to take the firm private.
Son framed the acquisition as a foundational move for “next-generation AI data centers,” aligning with his broader vision of turning SoftBank into a key platform player in what he calls Artificial Super Intelligence. The timing matters. As AI models grow larger and more complex, infrastructure is becoming a bottleneck. The question is no longer just who builds the best models, but who can reliably run them at scale.
This move also fits into a wider reshaping of SoftBank’s portfolio. The company recently sold its entire stake in Nvidia to free up capital for its OpenAI investment, signaling a shift away from owning chip exposure and toward controlling the environments where AI workloads actually live. By bringing DigitalBridge into the fold, SoftBank gains long-term leverage over compute, connectivity, and power — areas that are increasingly strategic as demand for AI services explodes.
DigitalBridge’s leadership echoed that view, calling the global buildout of AI infrastructure one of the biggest investment opportunities of this generation. Under SoftBank’s ownership, the firm expects to invest with a longer time horizon, helping major technology companies scale their AI ambitions without the short-term pressures of public markets.
For the broader tech industry, the message is clear. AI is no longer just a software story. Data centers are evolving from background utilities into strategic assets, and control over them is becoming a competitive advantage in its own right. SoftBank’s bet suggests the next decade of AI leadership will be defined as much by physical infrastructure as by code.
For investors and policymakers alike, the takeaway is hard to miss: the future of AI is being built not just in research labs, but in steel, fiber, power grids, and cooling systems. And those who own that foundation may end up shaping the entire ecosystem that runs on top of it.
This analysis is based on reporting from CNBC.
AI image generated courtesy of ChatGPT.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
