SoftBank is reported to be in early-stage talks to buy Allied Universal, the largest US security services company. The talks are said to value the equity at up to $18 billion, or close to $30 billion including debt. No agreement has been reached and the talks may not lead to a deal.
The reports arrived a fortnight after SoftBank completed a $30 billion follow-on investment in OpenAI on October 1, taking its cumulative investment to $64.6 billion for a stake of about 13%, and on the day it completed the $3.1 billion acquisition of DigitalBridge.
SoftBank’s next quarterly results are due in November. The sequence has put the question of who authorises the largest commitments, and how they are funded, back in view.
Who signs the cheques
SoftBank does not have a visible head of M&A. On its largest deals the board has delegated final decisions to two people: chairman and chief executive Masayoshi Son and chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto.
On the ABB Robotics acquisition the board delegated final terms to “Mr. Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO, and Mr. Yoshimitsu Goto, Corporate Officer, Senior Vice President, CFO, CISO & GCO.” Additionaly, on the $30 billion OpenAI investment the board resolved the commitment in February 2026 and delegated the final decision on terms to Goto.
Below them, acquired platforms keep their own leaders. DigitalBridge continues as a separately managed platform under its chief executive Marc Ganzi.
The pattern is consistent across the largest disclosed transactions: the board sets the parameters, then hands final authority on terms to Son and Goto.
The completed deals
Since early 2025 SoftBank has disclosed three significant acquisitions outside the OpenAI stake.
Ampere Computing, a US chip designer, was agreed at $6.5 billion in March 2025 and completed that November. ABB’s robotics business was agreed at $5.375 billion in October 2025 and is due to close in mid-to-late 2026, subject to approvals in the EU, China and the US. DigitalBridge, a digital infrastructure asset manager, was completed on September 30, 2026 for about $3.1 billion.
Allied Universal remains in early talks only. It is not included in the nearly $80 billion figure, which is built from the disclosed OpenAI investment plus the three completed or agreed acquisitions above. Adding the reported Allied range would push the total well above $100 billion if a deal were signed at the higher end, but no such agreement exists.
Son has framed the acquisitions around physical AI. On the ABB deal he said “SoftBank’s next frontier is Physical AI.” On DigitalBridge he said “As AI transforms industries worldwide, we need more compute, connectivity, power, and scalable infrastructure.”
How the money is being raised
The funding has come in layers. SoftBank repaid the $25.9 billion balance of a $40 billion loan taken earlier this year, then secured an $11.87 billion two-year loan from about 20 banks, alongside a $10 billion margin loan backed by its OpenAI stake. In September it sold $10 billion of dollar and €1 billion of euro senior unsecured notes, rated BB+ by Fitch. Fitch said leverage was likely to increase as SoftBank meets its investment commitments.
The same pattern of heavy borrowing for AI infrastructure has appeared elsewhere.
The OpenAI follow-on itself was structured in three $10 billion tranches, paid for in preferred shares that convert into common stock on an OpenAI listing. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has said the company would not proceed with a public offering this year, which leaves the conversion timing open.
Market reaction and open questions
SoftBank shares fell as much as 13% on September 14 after details of the additional borrowing emerged, then rose more than 7% after the bond sale. US-listed shares (SFTBY) fell 9.37% on October 16 after the Allied Universal reports. The moves have been sharp but have not yet altered the pace of disclosed commitments.
Two points remain open. First, the nearly $80 billion figure covers only disclosed commitments. It excludes any further capital SoftBank may put into Stargate or other vehicles, and it excludes Allied Universal while talks remain preliminary. Ownership percentages on Arm and other holdings also vary between sources and should be taken from SoftBank’s own disclosures. Second, the board continues to delegate final terms on the largest transactions to Son and Goto. Whether that structure holds for the next commitment, and how much additional debt the balance sheet can absorb before the November results, will be clearer once those numbers are published.
For now the pattern is consistent: large AI and infrastructure bets signed off at the top and funded with a rising share of borrowed money.
Author: Tejas Bansal
See Also
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