OpenAI delays IPO, dealing a heavy blow to SoftBank! With a $65 billion exposure facing a liquidity test, stock price plunges 13%, the biggest drop in two years.

SoftBank's stock price saw its biggest drop since August 2024. The market is worried that OpenAI may delay its initial public offering (IPO) until next year, which would correspondingly postpone the time for its Japanese investors to get returns.

According to plan, by October, SoftBank’s investment in OpenAI will reach approximately $65 billion. The market had widely expected that OpenAI’s listing would bring SoftBank substantial book gains; this hope had driven SoftBank’s stock price to repeatedly hit new highs, and helped its market capitalization surpass Toyota Motor last month.

Wall Street Matters previously published an article saying that recent fluctuations in tech stocks and pressure on the share price after SpaceX’s listing could dampen retail investors’ enthusiasm for OpenAI’s IPO, and that OpenAI may delay its IPO until 2027. Influenced by this news, SoftBank’s stock price plunged 13% on Friday.

Resona Holdings strategist Hiroki Takei said that once OpenAI goes public, it will provide a publicly transparent market valuation for this important asset in SoftBank’s large investment portfolio. SoftBank currently holds equity in hundreds of unlisted startups, so public-market pricing is significant.

He believes that if OpenAI successfully lists, investors will find it easier to evaluate the value of SoftBank’s overall investment portfolio. This transparency is expected to narrow the “conglomerate discount” that the market has long imposed on SoftBank, thereby reducing the risk premium demanded by investors. Takei said:

“Naturally, news of the IPO delay will weaken the market’s expectation for this.”

According to media reports earlier, Altman expects OpenAI to go public within the next year.

On Friday, SoftBank became the worst-performing constituent stock in the Nikkei 225 index. Dragged down by deteriorating sentiment in tech stocks, this chip-heavy Japanese benchmark index fell 4.2% that day, and the broader Asian tech sector was under pressure overall.

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