Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, is on a proactive fundraising drive to finalize his investment in OpenAI. Back in April of this year, SoftBank pledged to invest up to US$30 billion in OpenAI, with an initial US$10 billion already having been paid out. The release of the remaining funds hinges on OpenAI's ability to achieve profitability by the year's end, a milestone that the company has already attained as of October.

To gather the necessary funds, Son has initiated a series of strategic moves. These include offloading shares in NVIDIA and T-Mobile US, executing substantial workforce reductions, slowing down most transaction decisions of the SoftBank Vision Fund, expediting the listing of PayPay (which has been postponed to the first quarter of next year due to the U.S. government shutdown), devising plans to divest a portion of its stake in Didi, and boosting the margin loan limit based on its holdings in Arm Holdings. As of September 30, SoftBank's parent company still retained a substantial cash reserve and a portion of the equity in T-Mobile. OpenAI is anticipated to receive the remaining investment by the end of 2025.

Son's relentless pursuit of funds stems from the fact that, at the time the investment agreement was struck, OpenAI was valued at US$30 billion. Currently, negotiations are underway to elevate this valuation to nearly US$900 billion. The successful completion of this investment will not only yield SoftBank significant paper profits but also underscore its ambition to bolster its standing in the fierce global artificial intelligence race.