SoftBank Group, the Tokyo-based investment and telecom conglomerate, saw its shares fall by as much as 13% in Tokyo on June 26 after a report said OpenAI may delay its initial public offering until next year.

The report raised concerns about when SoftBank could make gains from one of its biggest private investments.

SoftBank said in April it would invest up to US$40 billion more in OpenAI and syndicate US$10 billion to co-investors, giving it exposure of up to US$30 billion, on top of US$2.2 billion already invested through Vision Fund 2 since September 2024.

The company has not disclosed the size of its OpenAI stake.

Those securities are designed to convert on IPO, and SoftBank said it marks them to fair value each quarter.

That makes OpenAI part of SoftBank’s net asset value even before any listing.

OpenAI has already filed confidentially and said the listing timeline remains a strategic choice.

Past secondary share sales also show that an IPO is not its only route to liquidity.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

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