SoftBank acquires DigitalBridge in $4B AI data center push

SoftBank’s move on DigitalBridge is a reminder that the race to AGI is increasingly a race to concrete, power and fiber, not just model weights. By taking private a specialist that manages over $100 billion in digital infrastructure assets, SoftBank is trying to vertically integrate the compute, networking and data-center footprint needed to sustain its bet on “Artificial Super Intelligence.” Instead of just leasing capacity from hyperscalers, it’s buying the landlord.([group.softbank](https://group.softbank/en/news/press/20251229?utm_source=openai))

Strategically, this complements SoftBank’s other big swings — from its outsized OpenAI stake to Project Stargate and recent bets on AI chips and Arm‑based servers. DigitalBridge brings exposure to data centers, towers, fiber and edge assets across the US and Europe, giving SoftBank optionality to steer capacity toward whichever AI workloads – training, inference, agentic systems – end up being most valuable.([computerworld.com](https://www.computerworld.com/article/4111976/softbank-expands-ai-infrastructure-ambitions-with-4b-digitalbridge-acquisition-2.html?utm_source=openai))

For competitors, the message is that infrastructure scarcity is real enough for major players to start locking it up via M&A. That puts pressure on cloud providers, sovereign AI programs and large AI labs to secure their own long-term access to power, land, and interconnects. If SoftBank can use DigitalBridge to preferentially serve its portfolio (and partners like OpenAI), it could tilt the playing field in favor of ecosystems it backs, subtly advancing those actors’ ability to train bigger and more agentic models sooner than peers with weaker infrastructure positions.