SoftBank Corp. raised about $4.8 billion by selling its stake in T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS), a move that will help fund the Japanese company’s ambitious AI plans.
The Tokyo-based technology group sold 21.5 million T-Mobile shares for $224 each — priced at the lower end of a $224 to $228 range — in an unregistered overnight block trade that represented a 3% discount to T-Mobile US’s Monday close of $230.99, according to final terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg. Bloomberg previously reported the deal.
SoftBank is stepping up its investment to make artificial intelligence reasoning better than humans: It plans to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI and work with the ChatGPT developer to invest hundreds of billions in data centers and related infrastructure in the U.S. and around the world. Its initial debt financing plans had been hampered by uncertainty over U.S. tariffs.
T-Mobile shares fell 3.9% in after-hours trading, and as of Monday's close, they were up 4.7% this year. SoftBank shares rose 2.3% in early Tokyo trading.
The deal is the largest U.S. stock sale since Toronto Dow TD.TO sold Charles Schwab Corp. shares for $13.1 billion in February, according to Bloomberg data. So far this year, new and outstanding shares issued by U.S. listed companies have reached $91.4 billion, up from $75.9 billion in the same period last year.
The sale of T-Mobile shares is the latest example of SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son using past investment successes, such as an early bet on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA, 9988.HK) that paid thousands of times its dividend, to raise money for new businesses.
In April 2020, U.S. telecom company T-Mobile completed its $26.5 billion acquisition of Sprint Corp. SoftBank acquired T-Mobile shares after the deal was completed. Later that year, SoftBank significantly reduced its T-Mobile stake in a $21 billion deal that helped it complete a record stock buyback.
The shares sold accounted for about 1.9% of T-Mobile's outstanding shares, according to calculations. SoftBank's annual report showed that as of March 31, the company held 85.4 million T-Mobile shares, accounting for 7.5%.
DTE.DE, DTEGY is T-Mobile's largest shareholder, with a 59% stake, according to a June 12 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The terms show that Bank of America Corp. is the sole bookrunner for the deal.
