The delay in OpenAI's listing affects SoftBank's AI landscape! Data center developer SB Energy (SBE.US)'s IPO prospects are being questioned by the market
The Zhitong Finance App learned that, according to reports, the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of SB Energy, an American data center developer under SoftBank (SFTBY.US), is facing increasing pressure as market uncertainty about OpenAI's launch date continues to increase. People familiar with the matter revealed that SoftBank is seeking to give the subsidiary a valuation of about 50 billion US dollars; its IPO is expected to take place within the next few weeks, and plans to raise 5 billion to 7 billion US dollars.
SB Energy is a key layout for SoftBank founder Sun Zhengyi to bet on core infrastructure to seize opportunities for surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI). SB Energy currently holds a portfolio of photovoltaic power generation and battery energy storage assets, and is developing a natural gas power plant with an installed capacity of 9.2 gigawatts in Ohio. The power plant will exclusively power the AI data center, indicating that the company's strategic focus is shifting towards the digital infrastructure sector at an accelerated pace.
SB Energy has yet to officially put any of its data centers into operation. The company has a huge contract backlog of up to 439 billion US dollars, mainly covering 8.8 gigawatts of data center capacity tied to long-term leases, second only to CoreWeave (CRWV.US) in the field of third-party computing power development. However, since SB Energy's major projects — including a massive 8-gigawatt campus in Ohio — are still under construction, $357 billion of its contracted revenue is not expected to be confirmed until 2034 or later.
Notably, SB Energy's future is closely linked to OpenAI and Nvidia (NVDA.US), and both companies will hold shares in SB Energy after listing. According to reports, OpenAI is the core tenant of SB Energy's main project pipeline, while Nvidia provided a $105 billion guarantee for the first phase of the Ohio project.
Earlier this month, SB Energy officially submitted an IPO application to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company expects its common stock to be listed and traded on Nasdaq Global Select Market (Nasdaq Global Select Market) and Nasdaq Texas (Nasdaq Texas) under the stock code “SBE”.
According to the prospectus, SB Energy achieved revenue of US$139 million and net loss of US$3.2 billion in the first half of 2026; compared with revenue of US$83 million and net loss of US$216 million for the same period last year. The sharp increase in losses was mainly due to upfront capital expenditure and asset impairment charges related to the construction of natural gas power generation projects.
SB Energy clearly warned in its prospectus that the company's recent financial situation and project financing are still highly dependent on OpenAI to maintain good performance. Market analysts and investors pointed out that the listing faced valuation barriers due to high customer concentration and huge capital requirements.
According to reports, SB Energy estimates that it will need to invest more than 1.7 trillion US dollars in capital expenses to build its project pipeline. In order to maintain its typical shareholding ratio of about 10% in project financing, analysts estimate that in addition to the capital raised from the IPO, SB Energy will also need to raise an additional equity capital of about 7 billion US dollars, and also need to obtain large-scale debt financing. Despite these capital requirements, SoftBank remains confident in receiving investor support because of Sun Zhengyi's previous successful experience in leading the listing of many large companies.