(Bloomberg) — SoftBank Group Corp. agreed to buy private equity firm DigitalBridge Group Inc. for about $3 billion in cash, part of the Japanese conglomerate’s push to invest in data centers and other digital infrastructure fueling the artificial intelligence boom.
SoftBank will pay $16 per share for New York-listed DigitalBridge, the companies said in a statement Monday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. The offer — valued at $4 billion including debt — is a 65% premium to DigitalBridge’s closing share price on Dec. 4, the last trading day before talks between the two companies were reported.
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SoftBank’s billionaire founder, Masayoshi Son, aims to capitalize on soaring demand for digital infrastructure, driven by the AI boom. The past year has seen a wave of multibillion-dollar deals in the space, largely focused on data centers and the computing power necessary to build and power the technology.
The need for capacity has fueled massive transactions, including BlackRock Inc.’s $40 billion purchase of Aligned Data Centers and Oracle Corp.’s agreement to supply OpenAI with about 4.5 gigawatts of computing power worth as much as $300 billion.
DigitalBridge is one of the biggest investment firms focused on digital infrastructure, with about $108 billion of assets under management at the end of September, according to its website.
DigitalBridge shares jumped 9.7% to $15.27 at 11:57 a.m. in New York, trading slightly below the sale price. The company disclosed about 189 million diluted shares outstanding and equivalents at the end of the third quarter.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals.
The deal will bring to SoftBank relationships with more investors keen to deploy money in the data center industry. DigitalBridge is led by Chief Executive Officer Marc Ganzi and its portfolio includes digital infrastructure operators such as AIMS, AtlasEdge, DataBank, Switch Inc., Vantage Data Centers and Yondr Group.
SoftBank has separately been discussing a potential acquisition of Switch, a data center operator backed by investors including DigitalBridge, Bloomberg News reported earlier in December. Switch’s owners have sought a valuation of around $50 billion including debt in a deal, people with knowledge of the matter have said.
While SoftBank’s most famous bets include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Arm Holdings Plc and WeWork, it has previously done deals in the asset management space. In 2017, it acquired Fortress Investment Group for more than $3 billion. It later sold its stake to a group including Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. and Fortress management in a deal completed in 2024.