India, Jan. 29 -- SoftBank is negotiating to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI. This move is part of a larger partnership that could result in the Japanese conglomerate spending over $40 billion on AI initiatives with the Microsoft-backed startup, the Financial Times reported citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal would make SoftBank OpenAI's largest investor, surpassing Microsoft, which has committed nearly $14 billion to date. However, due to Microsoft's earlier investment, SoftBank would hold a smaller stake in OpenAI's for-profit division, according to the report.
This deal follows last week's announcement that the two companies would co-lead a joint venture to invest $100 billion in the Stargate project, a massive data cen...