Catenaa, Monday, December 29, 2025- SoftBank Group agreed to acquire private equity firm DigitalBridge Group in a deal valuing the data center investor at $4 billion, including debt.
The Japanese conglomerate will pay $16 per share in cash for New York-listed DigitalBridge, the companies said in a statement Monday.
The acquisition is part of SoftBank’s push to invest in the digital infrastructure fueling the artificial intelligence boom.
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 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 $40 billion purchase of Aligned Data Centers and the Oracle 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 over 9.5% by Monday noon, trading slightly below the sale price. The deal represents a 15% premium to DigitalBridge’s closing share price on December 26, the companies said.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals.
The deal will bring SoftBank into relationships with more investors keen to deploy money in the data center industry.
SoftBank has separately been discussing a potential acquisition of Switch, a data center operator backed by investors including DigitalBridge. Switch’s owners have sought a valuation of around $50 billion including debt in a deal, people with knowledge of the matter have said.
