SB Energy, a SoftBank-backed company focusing on AI power infrastructure, has filed for an initial public offering in the U.S. to fund its ambitious data center projects. The company aims to raise between $5 billion and $7 billion from the offering, potentially valuing it at $50 billion. SoftBank is the controlling shareholder, and other key investors include OpenAI and Nvidia, with Sam Altman also being an early personal investor.
Despite its large fundraising target, SB Energy faces significant challenges. The company reported net losses of approximately $3.2 billion in the first half of 2026, primarily due to substantial investments in its data center strategy. Its revenue of about $139 million during the same period largely came from its legacy solar farm business. Crucially, none of SB Energy's data centers are operational yet, and it has not generated any revenue from this portion of its business as of the filing date.
SB Energy's strategy heavily relies on its relationship with OpenAI, which is both a tenant and an equity investor. The company's near-term revenues and development plans are significantly linked to OpenAI's continued performance. It is building two major data centers for OpenAI, one in Texas and another in Ohio, which are projected to account for 97% of its $439 billion revenue "backlog." Nvidia has also committed $105 billion in financing for the Ohio data center, securing exclusive use of its chips and investing $1.5 billion in SB Energy stock at a 10% discount to the IPO price.
The company will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and Nasdaq Texas under the ticker symbol "SBE." JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Mizuho are among the lead book-running managers for the offering. SB Energy plans to use the IPO proceeds for general corporate purposes, prioritizing working capital, operating expenses, and capital expenditures for its data center and power infrastructure projects. The IPO is expected to price later this month, likely the week of September 21.
