OpenAI receives $5.5B in SB Energy warrants ahead of SoftBank IPO: WSJ

In a recent tech update, Sam Altman's artificial intelligence platform OpenAI was issued warrants worth an estimated $5.5 billion in power infrastructure firm SB Energy.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing draft IPO documents reviewed by the Journal that SB Energy offered the massive financial incentive ahead of its planned Initial Public Offering (IPO) to secure OpenAI as a major data center tenant.

As reported, SB Energy is expected to file its public IPO documents soon, potentially going public the following month with a target to raise between $5 billion and $7 billion.

Draft filings reveal that both SoftBank and OpenAI plan to act as tenants across three of SB Energy's data centers, while a fourth massive 900-megawatt data center in Scurry County, Texas, has yet to identify its customers.

Earlier this month, Nvidia, invested $1.5 billion in SB Energy, and agreed to provide a guarantee of up to $105 billion to help OpenAI lease a data center in Ohio being developed by the company.

SoftBank Group and OpenAI are the planned tenants in three SB Energy data centers, the report said.

Reuters also reported earlier this year that SB Energy could seek a valuation of more than $50 billion in its market debut, which could come as early as next month.

SB Energy, a SoftBank subsidiary, develops large-scale power and data center infrastructure projects.

Founded in 2019, the company is building several data center campuses to support rising demand tied to AI workloads.

Experts weigh, the new move deepens the commercial and financial ties between the entities, as OpenAI has previously invested in SB Energy.