SoftBank Loses $7 Billion as AI Data Centers Turn Out to Be Risky Investment

The AI data center boom is looking as shaky as ever. Nowhere is that more apparent than at the Japanese megafirm SoftBank — perhaps best known for bankrolling WeWork before its spectacular implosion — and which now seems to be standing on a financial snowpack that could collapse into an avalanche. SoftBank backstopped OpenAI, the lab behind ChatGPT, with over $60 billion in risky debt financing. As the Financial Times reports, that move has now dragged the bank into an ominous loss of $7 billion between July and September, the…

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