SoftBank Acquires DigitalBridge in $4B Deal to Power AI Infrastructure Expansion

The acquisition of DigitalBridge by SoftBank signals a major move in the escalating competition for AI infrastructure. With DigitalBridge’s US$108 billion of assets under management, SoftBank gains exposure to key sectors including data centers, fiber networks, towers, edge systems and cell sites. These are the physical substrates increasingly in demand for large-scale AI models and cloud computing.

Paying US$16 per share in cash, representing a 15% premium over DigitalBridge’s recent closing share price and about a 50% premium over its unaffected 52-week average, SoftBank’s offer factors in both intrinsic value and strategic opportunity. The enterprise value of US$4.0 billion includes assumed debt, and despite the large underlying AUM, the deal suggests SoftBank viewed DigitalBridge as under-capitalized or undervalued relative to its strategic potential.

Maintaining DigitalBridge as a separately managed platform under Marc Ganzi helps retain leadership continuity, institutional knowledge, and operating flexibility. This structure enables SoftBank to integrate DigitalBridge’s infrastructure within its portfolio without full cultural or operational merging, a typical strategy when acquiring specialized infrastructure firms. However, it also implies potential overlap of SoftBank’s existing infrastructure assets and overlapping regulatory oversight if SoftBank already owns or operates similar assets in some markets.

Financially, while DigitalBridge posted healthy fee-earning equity and revenue growth before the acquisition, its net income has been volatile, reflecting negative carried interest and potentially thinner margins in certain infrastructure sub-sectors. SoftBank inherits both strengths and risks: stable long-term cash flows from infrastructure alongside exposure to capex intensity, regulatory risk, and potential overcapacity in AI infrastructure if demand slows.

Strategically, this deal fits into SoftBank’s broader recalibration: the company has recently sold its Nvidia stake (~US$5.8B), committed ~US$30B toward OpenAI, and is partnering on the Stargate project for large-scale computing capacity. DigitalBridge will likely serve as a backbone for such projects, providing owned or invested real estate and network infrastructure. That said, global regulatory scrutiny, energy/power constraints, and rising competition among infrastructure providers may challenge SoftBank’s return expectations.

Open questions raised by the deal include: how SoftBank will finance or manage DigitalBridge’s existing and future debt; whether it will leverage synergies with its existing tech, telecom, or energy assets; how regulatory environments (cross-border, telecom/real-estate) might affect approvals; and whether demand forecasts for AI infrastructure will meet the assumptions implicit in this valuation.