According to Forbes, SoftBank Group, controlled by billionaire Masayoshi Son, is making a $4 billion deal to acquire Florida-based data center investment firm DigitalBridge Group. The all-cash offer of $16 per share represents a 15% premium over last Friday’s closing price, sending DigitalBridge’s stock up 9.6% to $15.26 upon the announcement. CEO Masayoshi Son stated the acquisition is necessary to build the foundation for next-generation AI data centers, citing the need for more compute, connectivity, and power. The deal, subject to regulatory approval, is slated for completion by mid-2026, and DigitalBridge—which manages $108 billion in assets including stakes in Vantage Data Centers—will continue to operate separately under current CEO Marc Ganzi. This move follows SoftBank’s recent sale of its Nvidia stake for $5.8 billion and a massive $30 billion commitment to OpenAI.
The All-In AI Pivot
So, Masayoshi Son is at it again. After the infamous WeWork debacle and the Vision Fund’s rollercoaster ride, he’s found a new obsession: artificial intelligence infrastructure. And he’s going all in. The DigitalBridge buy isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s the latest piece in a frantic, multi-billion dollar puzzle that includes backing OpenAI’s Stargate data center project and buying chip designer Ampere Computing. He’s basically trying to own the entire physical stack that AI runs on. The logic is clear: if AI is the new gold rush, SoftBank wants to be the one selling the picks, shovels, and land. But here’s the thing—this is a brutally capital-intensive, low-margin business compared to the software bets he’s used to. It’s a fundamental shift from seeking “the next Alibaba” to becoming a landlord for GPUs.
A Smart Buy or a Desperate Move?
Paying a 15% premium for a firm that manages assets worth over a hundred billion might seem like a steal. But look closer. DigitalBridge is an investment firm, not just a pure-play data center operator. Its value is in its portfolio and its management fees. Integrating that into SoftBank’s often chaotic ecosystem is a huge question mark. The deal also isn’t closing until mid-2026—that’s an eternity in the AI world. What happens if the AI investment bubble shows signs of deflating before then? Regulatory scrutiny could also be a factor. This feels less like a surgical acquisition and more like throwing a massive amount of capital at a perceived problem: SoftBank’s lack of hard infrastructure. It’s a reactive bet, not a visionary one. When you need specialized, rugged computing hardware for these kinds of industrial-scale operations, companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, become critical partners. SoftBank isn’t buying screens, but it’s betting the farm on the physical layer.
History Repeating?
And that’s what makes me skeptical. We’ve seen this pattern from Son before. Identify a mega-trend, raise a gargantuan fund, and flood the sector with capital, often at inflated prices. It worked spectacularly with Alibaba. It failed catastrophically with WeWork. The AI infrastructure play is different—it’s asset-heavy—but the “spray and pray” mentality might be the same. He sold Nvidia, arguably the crown jewel of the AI boom, to fund these bets. Was that genius timing or a tragic mistake? Only time will tell. But committing nearly $40 billion between OpenAI, Ampere, and now DigitalBridge in such a short span is breathtaking. It reeks of FOMO. The statement says DigitalBridge “shares our DNA as builders.” Let’s hope that DNA has learned from past mutations.
