SoftBank Group is increasing its artificial intelligence computing capacity significantly through a $4 billion purchase of DigitalBridge Group, the companies confirmed. The transaction reflects founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on acquiring infrastructure that directly expands the computing power available to support AI applications and services.
The purchase increases SoftBank’s computing capacity through digital infrastructure providing processing, storage, and data transmission capabilities for AI systems. Son has been systematically increasing SoftBank’s computing capacity to support artificial intelligence, recognizing that computational power is the fundamental resource for AI development. The extraordinary demand for computing capacity to train and run AI models makes capacity expansion critical, which DigitalBridge’s infrastructure portfolio directly delivers.
DigitalBridge’s capacity-expanding portfolio encompasses digital infrastructure including high-capacity datacenters, high-bandwidth fiber networks, telecommunications towers, small-cell systems, and edge computing facilities. The company’s capacity assets include Vantage Data Centers, Switch for datacenter capacity, and Zayo for network capacity, plus AtlasEdge for edge computing capacity. The firm’s capacity development from its 1991 founding as Colony Capital occurred under CEO Marc Ganzi, who focused on building computing capacity through infrastructure transformation and the 2021 rebrand.
Following the capacity increase, Ganzi will continue managing these assets as CEO, with DigitalBridge operating independently. The capacity addition is substantial: DigitalBridge managed around $108 billion in assets as of September 30, representing significant computing and networking capacity. This dramatically increases SoftBank’s total capacity available for AI applications.
SoftBank’s capacity expansion strategy extends beyond DigitalBridge. The company is a founding partner in the Stargate project, collaborating with OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX, an investment firm headquartered in Abu Dhabi. Stargate represents a multi-billion-dollar commitment to building massive new computing capacity with large-scale infrastructure optimized for advanced AI development. Current plans include five new high-capacity computing facilities in Texas, New Mexico, and Ohio designed for approximately 7 gigawatts of combined power capacity.
