SoftBank Group shares plunged sharply on Friday, closing down about 13% at A56,200, after a New York Times report published late Thursday U.S. time indicated OpenAI is seriously weighing a delay of its planned initial public offering from 2026 to 2027.
OpenAI had previously positioned itself to go public as early as the third or fourth quarter of this year and had filed a confidential S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Company leadership, including CEO Sam Altman, had pushed advisers to target a $1 trillion valuation for the offering - a substantial increase from the companys valuation in its most recent private funding round, which ranged between $730 billion and $852 billion.
The potential postponement was linked in the report to recent volatility in technology shares and concern that retail investor demand may not be strong enough to support the aspirational $1 trillion price tag at this moment.
The report struck a particular chord with SoftBank investors because of the size of the companys exposure to OpenAI. SoftBank has invested approximately $65 billion in OpenAI and was a co-leader of the firms $122 billion funding round in March 2026. Those figures help explain why the market reacted so severely to the suggestion of an IPO delay.
At SoftBanks annual shareholder meeting in Tokyo just two days earlier, Chairman Masayoshi Son had argued against labeling the AI boom a bubble, calling such a description "an insult," and predicting that artificial superintelligence would allow one person to achieve the productivity of 1,000 people. The reported IPO delay represents a near-term reversal of the monetization timeline that had been emphasized at that meeting.
Concerns about SoftBanks funding and leverage profile also resurfaced after a separate report indicated that the companys effort to obtain a $6 billion margin loan using its OpenAI stake as collateral had stalled. That prior report added to investor unease about the companys financing options heading into 2027.
The selloff in SoftBank shares spilled over into broader markets. The decline led downward pressure on the Nikkei 225 and contributed to a softer tone across Asian technology names. In the U.S., the S&P 500 was largely flat while the NASDAQ was modestly lower, as investors weighed concerns over rising costs tied to AI infrastructure and the uncertain timing of near-term revenue for companies focused on AI products and services.
Market context and implications
This episode highlights the sensitivity of share prices to shifts in expected liquidity events for large private holdings. For a company with a multibillion-dollar position in a private AI firm, adjustments to an IPO timetable can materially affect near-term investor sentiment and perceived funding flexibility.
While the report centers on the timing of OpenAIs public debut and related investor appetite, the immediate market reaction reflected broader anxieties about the cost trajectory of AI infrastructure and when, if at all, anticipated revenues will materialize at scale for AI-first firms.
Bottom line
The prospect of an OpenAI IPO delay from 2026 to 2027 triggered a steep selloff in SoftBanks stock, driven by the sheer size of SoftBanks investment and recent financing developments. The move also weighed on Asian tech indices and highlighted investor sensitivity to timing and valuations in the AI sector.