Tag:

SoftBank

SoftBank, Ark seek to join Tether’s $20b funding round: Bloomberg
GameFi Guides

SoftBank, Ark seek to join Tether’s $20b funding round: Bloomberg

by admin



SoftBank Group and Ark Investment Management are looking to join Tether Holdings’ latest major funding round, a deal that could catapult the stablecoin giant to the top of the list of cryptocurrency companies.

Summary

  • SoftBank, Ark Investment are among top firms looking to join Tether’s upcoming major funding round, according to Bloomberg.
  • Tether is eyeing a funding round of up to $20 billion at a $500 billion valuation.
  • The USDT issuer seeks to bolster its expansion via initiatives including artificial intelligence and energy

SoftBank and Ark, according to Bloomberg, have initiated talks over the funding round and are keen on backing Tether Holdings SA.

The round, sources say, is significant and could value the USDT issuer as high as $500 billion. In this case, the investment could elevate Tether into the bracket of the world’s most valuable private companies.

According to the report, Tether is eyeing a private placement for $15–$20 billion in exchange for about 3% of the company. Funds would go toward bolstering the stablecoin giant’s expansion efforts, including initiatives in artificial intelligence and energy.

Tether is the “Stable Company”

Plans for a mega funding round comes on the back of Tether appointing Benjamin Habbel as its new chief business officer. Habbel, the co-founder and CEO of private equity firm Limestone Capital, will lead Tether’s organizational growth, as well as the company’s finance, investments, and portfolio expansion efforts.

Tether also recently announced its plans for USAT, a U.S.-regulated stablecoin earmarked for U.S. customers and expected to launch by year-end. Former White House crypto official Bo Hines is Tether USAT’s chief executive officer.

Meanwhile, Tether (USDT), the company’s flagship project, continues to see significant expansion. 

In a recent post on X, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his stablecoin “is building the largest peer-to-peer network of money movement.” He noted that daily wallet-to-wallet USDT transfers stand at over $17.4 billion, accounting for 130x growth since 2020.

“Tether isn’t just a stablecoin company – it’s The Stable Company. We’re building resilient infrastructure, advancing financial sovereignty, and pioneering a future that’s decentralised, resilient, stable, and powered by AI,’ Ardoino added in a statement.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Decrypt logo
GameFi Guides

SoftBank, Ark May Back Stablecoin Giant Tether in Massive Funding Round: Report

by admin



In brief

  • Tether is reportedly seeking up to $15-20 billion for a 3% stake in its firm.
  • Ark Invest and Softbank are reportedly in discussions to participate in the raise.
  • The raise would value the firm at around $500 billion, making it one of the largest private companies in the world.

Tech investors SoftBank Group and Ark Investment are among the firms discussing participation in a major Tether fundraise that could  value the stablecoin issuer at $500 billion, according to a Friday Bloomberg report.

The two groups’ interest follows three days after news that El Salvador-based Tether was looking to raise $15-20 billion for a 3% equity stake. Bloomberg first reported this story, citing two unnamed sources, although another source said the amount could be less. 

The initiative could help push Tether deeper into mainstream finance, the report said.

At $500 billion, Tether would rank among the world’s largest private companies, putting it in the same conversation as artificial intelligence firm OpenAI and Elon Musk’s space exploration and transportation firm, SpaceX, which received similar valuations.



Tether, which issues the world’s largest stablecoin—USDT—plan’s to further expand its footprint, anticipating the debut of a new U.S. regulated stablecoin—USAT—by the end of the year. 

Softbank is a Japan-based multinational investment company. Ark is a U.S.-based asset manager. Both have been active in the crypto space. 

The firm has been creating more of a presence in the United States since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump last year, recently adding former White House crypto advisor Bo Hines as a strategic advisor. It also maintains a close relationship with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose previous firm Cantor Fitzgerald is advising Tether in its fundraising talks and also custodies all its assets, according to the Bloomberg report. 

Tether and stablecoins have been at the forefront of crypto conversation for the bulk of this year, highlighted by the U.S.’s passage of the GENIUS Act, a regulatory framework for the trading and issuance of the fiat-backed tokens. 

Its USDT stablecoin sits at a $173 billion market cap, making it the third largest crypto asset by market cap at the time of writing and more than double the market cap of Circle’s USDC stablecoin. 

Stablecoins as a whole have added more than $122 billion in market cap since this time last year to reach a total of nearly $300 billion, according to data from DeFi Llama. Earlier this year, U.K. bank Standard Chartered predicted that the market could reach $750 billion by the end of 2026. 

Decrypt reached out to Tether for comment.

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Softbank And Ark To Join In Tether’s $20B Funding Round
GameFi Guides

SoftBank and Ark to Join in Tether’s $20B Funding Round

by admin



Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, is preparing for a fund raising round and SoftBank Group and Ark Investment Management are looking to join, but final commitments have not yet been made.

According to Bloomberg’s report on Friday, the investment firms are among high-profile backers holding early discussions as Tether seeks new capital to boost its global presence.

Tether Targets Record-Breaking Valuation

Tether is looking to raise between $15 billion and $20 billion by selling about a 3% stake through a private deal. If this deal goes through, the company could be valued at close to $500 billion. That would make Tether one of the most valuable private companies in the world, in the same league as OpenAI, and other tech giants

The company is being advised by New York-based investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, which has long been run by Howard Lutnick, now serving as U.S. Commerce Secretary.

Bloomberg reported earlier in the week that Tether’s plan could become one of the largest crypto funding deals ever attempted. 

Stablecoin Giant Expands Its Reach

Tether is the biggest player in the stablecoin market. Its main token, USDT, is tied to the value of the U.S. dollar and is widely used for trading and moving money quickly the crypto world without relying on banks 

According to CoinGecko, USDT has a market value of about $173 billion, making it the largest stablecoin in circulation.

USDT Price Chart | Source: CoinGecko

The El Salvador-based company has also invested in other sectors including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, telecommunications, and even real estate.

SoftBank, led by Masayoshi Son, has a long history of investing in new technology, including chips, AI, and self-driving cars. The firm started increasing its exposure to the crypto space recently. Ark Invest, run by Cathie Wood, has also expanded its digital asset portfolio, previously investing in Circle, a direct rival to Tether.

Also Read: Theta Capital is Seeking $200M for its Blockchain Fund-of-Funds



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Japanese Giant Softbank to Potentially Participate in Tether's Funding Round
GameFi Guides

Japanese Giant Softbank to Potentially Participate in Tether’s Funding Round

by admin


According to a recent report by Bloomberg, Japanese financial giant Softbank Group is on track to participate in the massive funding round of stablecoin behemoth Tether. 

Recently, it was reported that Tether was preparing to rake in roughly $500 billion worth of crypto, which would make it one of the biggest private companies with a valuation of up to $20 billion. 

Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment is also among the participants in the funding round. 

Softbank and crypto 

Softbank Group’s Masayoshi Son, who is currently the third-richest person in Japan with a net worth of $21.3 billion, has had a rather complicated relationship with crypto. 

You Might Also Like

As reported by U.Today, Son placed a big bet on Bitcoin at the peak of the market, and ended up taking a $130 million loss after the leading cryptocurrency experienced a substantial correction. 

He later acknowledged that he did not fully understand the leading cryptocurrency. 

However, Softbank recently became actively involved in crypto. Earlier this year, it joined forces with Tether and Bitfinex to found a cryptocurrency venture called “Twenty One Capital.” 



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
GameFi Guides

Tether (USDT) Fundraising Interest Reportedly From Softbank, Ark Invest

by admin



Tech-focused investment companies SoftBank and Ark Invest are among the firms in early stage talks to invest in Tether, issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT (USDT), Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The report follows this week’s news about Tether looking to raise up to $20 billion in a fundraising round that would value the firm at around $500 billion, which would make it one of the world’s most valuable private companies.

The fundraising and the hefty valuation underscores the red-hot stablecoin trend, a fast-growing crypto sector with a potential to disrupt global payment flows. Stablecoins are a class of cryptocurrencies with prices tied to fiat money like the U.S. dollar, and could offer a cheaper, faster alternative for cross-border transactions using blockchain rails, proponents say. The sector has grown 40% year-to-date to $287 billion, RWA.xyz data shows, and analysts at global bank Citi project stablecoins will hit $4 trillion in market value in its bull market scenario.

Tether’s USDT is the market leader with a $173 billion market capitalization, predominantly backed by U.S. Treasuries that has provided a windfall of profits from bond yields over the past years. The company reported $4.9 billion in profits in the second quarter of this year.

Circle (CRCL), issuer of the second-largest stablecoin USDC of over $70 billion, went public this June and saw its stock price skyrocket to $300 from around $30, underscoring the investor appetite to gain exposure to the stablecoin theme.

Tether, which has focused on serving emerging markets with limited U.S. dollar access, announced earlier this month it intended to formally enter the U.S. market with a dollar token dubbed USAT, designed to meet the requirements of the GENIUS Act, the nation’s first federal crypto law which sett rules for stablecoins. It also poached Bo Hines, former director of the White House Crypto Council advising President Donald Trump on crypto policies, to lead its U.S. division.

Read more: Stablecoin Market Could Reach $4 Trillion by 2030, Citi Says in Revised Forecast



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
OpenAI Teams Up With Oracle and SoftBank to Build 5 New Stargate Data Centers
Product Reviews

OpenAI Teams Up With Oracle and SoftBank to Build 5 New Stargate Data Centers

by admin


OpenAI is planning to build five new data centers in the United States as part of the Stargate initiative, the company announced on Tuesday. The sites, which are being developed in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank, bring Stargate’s current planned capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts—roughly the same amount of power as seven large-scale nuclear reactors.

“AI is different from the internet in a lot of ways, but one of them is just how much infrastructure it takes,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during a press briefing in Abilene, Texas, on Tuesday. He argued that the US “cannot fall behind on this” and the “innovative spirit” of Texas provides a model for how to scale “bigger, faster, cheaper, better.”

Three of the new sites, in Shackelford County, Texas; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; and a yet-to-be-disclosed location in the Midwest, are being developed in partnership with Oracle. The move follows an agreement Oracle and OpenAI announced in July to develop up to 4.5 gigawatts of US data center capacity on top of what the two companies are already building at the first Stargate facility in Abilene.

OpenAI claims the new data centers, along with a planned 600 megawatt expansion of the Abilene site, will create more than 25,000 onsite jobs, though the number of workers required to build data centers typically dwarfs the amount needed to maintain them afterwards.

The two remaining sites are being helmed by OpenAI and SB Energy, a SoftBank subsidiary that develops solar and battery projects. These are located in Lordstown, Ohio, and Milam County, Texas.

Stargate is one of several major US technology infrastructure projects that have been announced since President Donald Trump took office at the start of the year. OpenAI said in January that the $500 billion, 10 gigawatt commitment between the ChatGPT maker, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX would “secure American leadership in AI” and “create hundreds of thousands of American jobs.”

Trump touted the mammoth initiative just two days after he returned to the White House, promising that it would accelerate American progress in artificial intelligence and help the US compete against China and other nations. In July, Trump announced an AI action plan that called for speedy infrastructure development and limited red tape as the US tries to beat other countries in the quest for advanced AI. “We believe we’re in an AI race,” White House AI czar David Sacks said at the time. “We want the United States to win that race.”

OpenAI initially framed Stargate as a “new company” that would be chaired by Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. Now, however, executives close to the project say it’s an umbrella brand name used to refer to all of OpenAI’s data center projects—except those developed in partnership with Microsoft.

The flagship site in Abilene is primarily owned and operated by Oracle, with OpenAI acting as the primary tenant, according to executives close to the project. The buildout, which is being managed by the data center startup Crusoe, is on track to be completed by mid-2026, sources close to the project say. It is already running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and supporting OpenAI training and inference workloads, those sources add.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
SoftBank technology trial
Product Reviews

SoftBank beams 5G to phones from the sky in successful stratospheric test flight

by admin



SoftBank successfully delivered end-to-end 5G connectivity to standard smartphones using an airborne base station, in a live field trial conducted in June, above Hachijō Island, Japan. The company used a light aircraft flying at 3,000 meters to simulate a high-altitude platform, linking ground infrastructure to devices via a 26 GHz feeder connection and a 1.7 GHz service link.

Unlike most “direct-to-device” projects that rely on satellites in low Earth orbit, SoftBank’s approach uses High-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) that hover in the stratosphere, about 20 kilometers up. That altitude brings big advantages like lower latency and fewer of the power and Doppler challenges that present challenges to orbital links. According to SoftBank, the service link in the trial operated on the 1.7 GHz band, which is already supported by most 5G phones sold around the world.

(Image credit: SoftBank)

The aircraft-mounted payload used beamforming to create six directional cells fixed in place on the ground, even as the aircraft flew a circular holding pattern overhead. The system automatically shifted beam coverage every 60 degrees of rotation, emulating the behavior of a future stratospheric platform while proving that stable cellular coverage is possible with real-world mobility.


You may like

(Image credit: SoftBank)

SoftBank’s radio stack links a mmWave backhaul from ground to aircraft with a sub-2 GHz link from aircraft to user, stitching together the entire 5G core chain. That design means HAPS nodes can act as intelligent base stations, not just repeaters or relays. The company also validated Doppler correction, automatic power control, and adaptive beam tracking, all of which are required for commercial service in the sky.

Compared to satellite-to-cell systems like AST SpaceMobile’s LEO-based platform, which previously demonstrated a 5G call from space, HAPS can cover wide areas with lower path loss and better spectrum reuse. And thanks to recent ITU decisions at WRC-23, operators like SoftBank can now deploy HAPS in terrestrial mobile bands, including 700 MHz, 850 MHz, 1.7 GHz, and 2.5 GHz.

SoftBank’s work could lead to 5G service in places where towers don’t reach, like disaster zones, offshore waters, or remote islands. The company hasn’t said when it will scale this to a full commercial launch, but the technical foundation is here, at least in theory.

Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Intel Foundry
Product Reviews

Softbank reportedly considered buying Intel’s foundry division outright before investing $2 billion into the company as equity

by admin



SoftBank today announced its intent to purchase a historic $2 billion worth of Intel shares—a roughly 2% stake—making it one of the largest shareholders of the American chipmaker. However, the Financial Times reports that just days before the deal was inked, Softbank actually considered buying Intel’s foundry division outright.

This follows another unprecedented report that the White House is considering a 10% stake in Intel, utilizing grants from the CHIPS Act and converting them into equity.


You may like

(Image credit: Getty Images / Bloomberg)

SoftBank is a Japanese financial institution that owns a majority stake in semiconductor IP developer Arm and already has close ties with the Trump administration thanks to the Stargate project. For those out of the loop, that’s a $500 billion promise to build AI infrastructure in the U.S. that would purportedly create 100,000 jobs, bolster American chipmaking, and make the country the clear leader in bleeding-edge AI applications.

SoftBank already owns 40% of that project and is now set to own 2% of Intel, marking a significant investment in the promise of a turnaround for the beleaguered company and its geopolitical importance in keeping bleeding-edge semiconductors local to America.

Lip-Bu Tan also served as a board member for SoftBank till 2022, and left amidst the company’s own set of challenges following a few miscalculated investments.

Years later, Son is now investing in Intel. “Masa and I have worked closely together for decades, and I appreciate the confidence he has placed in Intel with this investment,” said Tan. This endeavor aligns with SoftBank’s broader strategies geared toward expanding its presence in the AI market and gaining a foothold in emerging technologies.

Previously, SoftBank invested heavily in Nvidia, owning about 4.9% of the company, but it sold those shares in 2019 when Nvidia’s share price was in a downturn. After losing out on billions in gains in recent years when Nvidia began its meteoric rise, Softbank increased its investment in Nvidia to $3 billion at the beginning of 2025.

As part of its Project Izanagi initiative, Softbank reportedly explored fabricating an AI accelerator of its own with Intel in 2024, but due to a lack of confidence in Intel meeting its performance and volume projections, Softbank pivoted to TSMC for its foundry needs. SoftBank also acquired Graphcore for its AI accelerator IP as part of its larger strategy.

(Image credit: Intel)

Right now, Intel’s foundry business is struggling as its next-gen 18A and 14A process nodes are on the chopping block (the former for external customers) if it can’t secure enough customer commitments. Intel has, however, reiterated that it is its own biggest customer and that the company is committed to chip manufacturing.

SoftBank’s $2 billion stake in Intel demonstrates a great deal of trust in Tan’s leadership, but Son’s history of questionable investment choices means a resurgent Intel is far from a sure thing. Intel has also lost out to Nvidia in the AI race and continues to lose ground in both the consumer x86 and server markets to AMD. Whether Trump’s and Son’s interventions in the fate of the company are enough to save it remains to be seen.

Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Close