SB Energy to sell up to $500 million in shares to Japan investors as part of US IPO

SoftBank Group-backed data centre developer, SB Energy, plans to offer up to $500 million in shares to Japanese investors as part of a U.S. Initial Public Offering (IPO), according to a filing disclosed on Tuesday. The proceeds from the sale will be allocated for operational expenses, including the creation of data centers, power generation, and related infrastructure projects.

The specific size of the U.S. IPO has not been disclosed in the filing. SoftBank may target a valuation of $50 billion for SB Energy, as reported by Reuters. Chipmaker Nvidia has pledged to invest $1.5 billion in a private placement at the IPO price, while OpenAI has been granted warrants worth approximately $5.5 billion, as per SB Energy's investment prospectus released earlier this September.

The surge in investor interest for artificial intelligence has led to a series of IPOs in related companies this year, with SpaceX going public in June and OpenAI's listing expected later this year. Japanese investors acquired $2.2 billion worth of SpaceX shares during its IPO.