The Tokyo-based technology group sold 21.5 million T-Mobile shares for US$224 each
Published Tue, Jun 17, 2025 · 07:20 AM — Updated Tue, Jun 17, 2025 · 05:06 PM
[NEW YORK] SoftBank Group raised around US$4.8 billion through a sale of T-Mobile US shares, a move that helps fund the Japanese company’s grandiose plans for artificial intelligence.
The Tokyo-based technology group sold 21.5 million T-Mobile shares for US$224 each – pricing at the bottom of the US$224 to US$228 range – in an unregistered overnight block sale, according to the final terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg News. The offering, which Bloomberg reported earlier, represents a discount of 3 per cent to T-Mobile US’ Monday closing price of US$230.99 per share.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is ramping up investments aimed at making AI reasoning superior to humans’. He’s overseeing plans to put down as much as US$30 billion in OpenAI and is also working with the ChatGPT creator to ferry hundreds of billions of dollars into data centres and related infrastructure around the world under the Stargate banner. SoftBank’s original plans for debt financing had snagged on uncertainties around US tariffs.
T-Mobile shares fell 3.9 per cent in extended trading, while SoftBank’s shares rose 2.1 per cent in Tokyo. A representative of SoftBank declined to comment. Representatives of T-Mobile did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
The deal is the biggest US share sale since Toronto-Dominion Bank sold a US$13.1 billion stake in brokerage firm Charles Schwab in February. Sales of new and existing shares in US-listed companies reached US$91.4 billion in the year to date, up from US$75.9 billion in the same period a year ago, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The T-Mobile stake sale would be the latest example of Son tapping past investment successes – such as an early bet on Alibaba Group Holding that’s yielded thousands-fold returns – to fund new ventures.
SoftBank received T-Mobile shares with the completion of the US telecom company’s US$26.5 billion acquisition of Sprint in April 2020. Later that year, SoftBank substantially reduced its stake in T-Mobile via a US$21 billion deal that helped pay for a record buyback of SoftBank’s shares.
The stake offered represents about 1.9 per cent of T-Mobile’s outstanding shares, according to Bloomberg calculations. SoftBank owned 85.4 million shares or 7.5 per cent of T-Mobile as of March 31, according to its annual report.
Deutsche Telekom is T-Mobile’s largest shareholder with a 59 per cent stake, according to a June 12 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. BLOOMBERG
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