Softbank’s pursuit of a $40 billion bridge loan (link here, covered everywhere) to help fund its expanding investment in OpenAI shows the mad capital demands of the AI arms race – as well as Softbank chief Masayoshi Son’s total commitment to AI dominance. The proposed financing, being discussed with major banks, would represent one of the largest US‑dollar borrowings in the Japanese group’s history, and is aimed largely at backing its growing stake in the developer of ChatGPT. The move highlights both SoftBank’s bullish belief in the long‑term value of frontier AI and the massive funding required to scale compute infrastructure and research – even as terms remain subject to change and neither Softbank nor OpenAI has publicly commented. The backdrop includes OpenAI’s broader fundraising efforts that could value the company near $1 trillion ahead of a potential IPO, along with substantial contributions from other tech giants – also illustrating how financing structures are evolving to meet the extraordinary costs of next‑generation AI platforms.
James Blackman
Executive Editor
RCR Wireless News
RCR Top Stories
Mid-term 5G pay-offs: Ericsson offered a measured view of AI’s impact on telecoms at MWC: fiber may lead the infrastructure boom today, but AI will also shift through the mid-cycle 5G evolution in AI-driven RAN optimisation.
Telecom AI reset: Jio Platforms said at MWC that the AI era will reset telecom economics, introducing token-based services and intelligence-driven infrastructure that will reshape industries and create trillion-dollar opportunities.
DNB goes private: Malaysia’s DNB is set to become fully privately owned after CelcomDigi and Maxis confirmed purchases of government-held shares, as competition grows from U Mobile’s emerging wholesale 5G network.
Japan’s DC surge: Japan’s data center market is projected to exceed $24 billion by 2035 as cloud demand, AI workloads and 5G-driven edge computing accelerate infrastructure investment and expansion by domestic and global operators.
AI vs voice scams: AI‑driven voice scams are rising as fraudsters use synthetic speech and automated calling to trick consumers into returning missed calls that trigger premium charges, prompting carriers to explore AI blocking techniques.
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Beyond the Headlines
HCF for AI DCs: Hollow‑core fiber could ease the AI infra crunch by enabling lower‑latency, high‑speed optical links that support geographically distributed facilities, though manufacturing costs and ecosystem maturity remain barriers.
Inference networks: Arrcus says real‑world AI inference workloads are shifting to the edge, requiring policy‑aware network fabrics that connect training clusters and edge nodes with granular control; it has new partnerships to support this.
Carpe diem, says Cisco: While most of the big talk at MWC is about 5G and 6G, the most urgent AI infra work is with fiber-heavy data centre interconnects. Cisco says mobile and edge networks are positioned as a critical mid-term component.
Qualcomm on 6G: Qualcomm says 6G will rely on three pillars – connectivity, computing, and sensing – and transform telecoms into AI-native infrastructure capable of powering new devices, services, and business models.
AT&T at the edge: Partnerships with Nvidia, Microsoft, AWS, and industrial IoT specialist Geoforce show how AT&T is positioning fibre, edge infrastructure, and enterprise connectivity to support AI workloads from data centre to factory floor.
What We're Reading
Softbank mega loan: Softbank is seeking a $40 billion loan to finance a larger investment in OpenAI. The 12-month bridge loan would be the company’s biggest dollar borrowing as CEO Masayoshi Son doubles down on AI.
Nscale raises $2bn: AI infrastructure firm Nscale has raised $2 billion in Series C funding, valuing the company at $14.6 billion; the round will expand global AI compute and data-centre capacity; board changes have followed.
MTN taps Huawei: Huawei and MTN have a deal to expand AI-driven networks and infrastructure across Africa, targeting Level 4 networking autonomy and agent-driven operations to automate planning, deployment and network management.
Beware PQC retrofits: IBM is working with Signal and Threema to bring post‑quantum cryptography (PQC) into IM systems. Retrofitting current protocols with quantum‑safe components could increase bandwidth demands by up to 100x.
Telit GNSS positioning: Telit Cinterion has expanded its GNSS portfolio with two new dual-band modules for scalable IoT deployments, supporting ultra-compact devices and high-precision applications with features such as RTK.
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