SoftBank to Acquire DigitalBridge for $4 Billion, Doubling Down on AI Infrastructure

On December 29, SoftBank Group announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DigitalBridge for a total enterprise value of approximately $4.0 billion. The deal brings one of the world’s largest dedicated digital infrastructure investment platforms under SoftBank’s control as the Japanese conglomerate continues to reposition itself around artificial intelligence and the physical infrastructure required to support it.

Under the terms of the agreement, SoftBank will acquire all outstanding shares of DigitalBridge for $16.00 per share in cash, representing a 15% premium to the company’s December 26 closing price and roughly a 50% premium to its unaffected 52-week average. The transaction has been unanimously approved by DigitalBridge’s board and is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals.

A Platform Play, Not a Portfolio Add-On

DigitalBridge is not a traditional operating company, but a global alternative asset manager focused almost exclusively on digital infrastructure. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, the firm manages approximately $108 billion in assets across data centers, fiber networks, cell towers, small cells, and edge infrastructure, with investments spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Its portfolio has included stakes in companies such as Vantage Data Centers, Zayo, Switch, and AtlasEdge, reflecting a strategy built around long-duration, capital-intensive infrastructure rather than short-cycle technology bets.

For SoftBank, the acquisition represents a step change in how it participates in the AI ecosystem. While the company has long been a major investor in AI-adjacent technologies, ranging from semiconductors through its majority stake in Arm to large positions in AI software and platforms, DigitalBridge provides direct exposure to the physical layer underpinning AI deployment.

In announcing the deal, SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son emphasized infrastructure constraints as a central challenge for AI growth, citing the need for “more compute, connectivity, power, and scalable infrastructure” as AI adoption accelerates globally.

DigitalBridge’s Role in AI Capacity Expansion

The transaction arrives at a moment when AI-related demand is reshaping the economics and geography of data center development. Hyperscale and AI-focused facilities increasingly require hundreds of megawatts of power, dense interconnection, and access to long-term capital capable of underwriting multi-decade asset lifecycles.

DigitalBridge’s investment model has been built around those same fundamentals. Unlike developers or operators focused on individual campuses, the firm has specialized in assembling and financing platforms that can scale across regions and asset classes.

According to DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi, the combination with SoftBank is expected to provide greater flexibility and a longer investment horizon, while allowing DigitalBridge to continue operating as a separately managed platform. That structure is designed to preserve the firm’s ability to invest across the digital infrastructure ecosystem, including with customers and partners that may not be directly aligned with SoftBank’s other holdings.

Part of a Broader AI Infrastructure Strategy

The acquisition also fits into SoftBank’s broader push to position itself at the center of what Son has repeatedly described as a once-in-a-generation technological shift driven by artificial intelligence. In recent months, SoftBank has increased its exposure to large-scale compute and infrastructure initiatives, including participation alongside OpenAI, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi-based investor MGX in the Stargate project.

That effort, announced earlier in 2025, calls for the development of multiple large computing sites across Texas, New Mexico, and Ohio, with a combined projected power capacity of roughly seven gigawatts once fully built out.

Against that backdrop, DigitalBridge offers SoftBank a way to systematize infrastructure investment rather than approach it project by project. The firm’s global footprint and established relationships with developers, operators, utilities, and capital partners provide a ready-made platform for sourcing and financing capacity at scale.

What the Deal Signals to the Industry

For the data center industry, the transaction underscores a growing convergence between AI capital and infrastructure ownership. As AI workloads drive unprecedented power and connectivity requirements, control over land, energy access, and network assets is becoming as strategically important as access to GPUs or models.

SoftBank’s decision to acquire DigitalBridge outright, rather than remain a limited partner or co-investor, suggests a view that infrastructure is no longer a peripheral concern, but a core strategic asset in the AI value chain.

At the same time, the decision to keep DigitalBridge operating independently reflects the realities of infrastructure finance. Digital infrastructure platforms depend on neutrality, regulatory credibility, and long-term alignment with a wide range of customers, including hyperscalers, carriers, and enterprises that may also compete with SoftBank-backed firms.

Looking Ahead

Assuming the deal closes as planned in the second half of 2026, SoftBank will emerge as one of the most vertically integrated investors in the AI ecosystem: spanning chips, platforms, and now large portions of the physical infrastructure layer.

For DigitalBridge, the acquisition provides a new parent with deep capital resources and a clear strategic motivation to expand AI-related capacity globally.

And for the broader data center market, the deal serves as another signal that the AI buildout phase is entering a more infrastructure-centric era, where long-term capital, power access, and platform scale increasingly determine who can move fastest and at the largest scale to meet demand.

Implications for SoftBank’s Role in Project Stargate

That longer-term positioning comes into sharper focus when viewed through SoftBank’s role within the aforementioned Project Stargate, the large-scale AI computing and infrastructure effort SoftBank is backing alongside OpenAI, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi–based investor MGX.

Stargate, unveiled earlier in 2025, calls for the development of multiple massive AI computing sites across Texas, New Mexico, and Ohio, with a combined projected power capacity of roughly seven gigawatts once fully built out. The scale of that ambition places it among the most power- and capital-intensive infrastructure initiatives ever contemplated for AI.

Until now, SoftBank’s role in Stargate has been primarily financial and strategic, i.e. helping underwrite the effort and align partners around a shared vision of next-generation AI capacity. DigitalBridge materially strengthens that position by giving SoftBank direct access to an experienced global platform for originating, financing, and scaling the kinds of assets Stargate will require.

In practical terms, DigitalBridge brings three capabilities that map closely to Stargate’s needs:

• Infrastructure origination and siting: Experience assembling large portfolios of data centers, fiber, and edge assets across multiple regions, critical for identifying and executing on power-ready, network-rich sites.
• Long-duration capital structuring: A track record of financing infrastructure assets over multi-decade horizons, aligning with the long useful lives and balance-sheet profiles expected of multi-gigawatt AI campuses.
• Operational and partnership neutrality: An established ability to work with hyperscalers, utilities, and network providers without being tied to a single operator model.

For Stargate, which must coordinate compute, power, connectivity, and capital at unprecedented scale, those capabilities reduce execution risk. They also give SoftBank more leverage as a stakeholder: not just as a source of funding, but as an owner of the infrastructure platforms that could underpin future Stargate expansions.

More broadly, the move positions SoftBank to play a dual role in AI megaprojects: investor and enabler. Rather than relying entirely on third-party developers and infrastructure funds, SoftBank can now participate directly in shaping how and where large-scale AI capacity is built.

That distinction matters as competition intensifies for power, land, and interconnection. In the context of Project Stargate, DigitalBridge effectively turns SoftBank from a passenger in the AI infrastructure buildout into a participant with meaningful control over its physical foundations.

At Data Center Frontier, we talk the industry talk and walk the industry walk. In that spirit, DCF Staff members may occasionally use AI tools to assist with content. Elements of this article were created with help from OpenAI's GPT5.

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