According to people familiar with the situation, SoftBank Group Corp. wants to buy up to $1.5 billion worth of shares from OpenAI’s staff to enhance its ownership in the business.
Employees of OpenAI will have the option to cash in their shares if they so desire once the Japanese business makes a tender offer for the stock.
According to a person who asked not to be named because the talks are private, SoftBank had pushed for a greater commitment at the time but contributed $500 million to OpenAI’s $6.6 billion financing round in October.
Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank, has promised to increase investments in artificial intelligence as his Tokyo-based business recovers from years of setbacks. In the most recent investment round, OpenAI, which leapt to early leadership in the industry with its ChatGPT, was valued at $157 billion.
It’s unclear how much stock SoftBank will be able to purchase from OpenAI’s staff members, who might decide to hang onto their shares if they see promising future developments.
Requests for comment outside of regular business hours were not answered by SoftBank or OpenAI.
According to sources who broke the story first, the SoftBank tender offer is scheduled to finish this week.
