SoftBank positioning itself among the top ten shareholders of Intel, after acquiring a 2% stake in Intel through a $2B share deal.
Intel has secured a $2 billion equity investment from Japan’s SoftBank Group through a primary stock issuance. The deal, announced Monday, positions SoftBank among Intel’s top 10 shareholders with a stake just under 2%, acquired at $23 per share, slightly below Intel’s previous close of $23.66.
According to Intel, SoftBank will not take a board seat or engage in commercial chip supply agreements. The capital raise comes amid Intel’s ongoing turnaround strategy, following a $18.8 billion annual loss in 2024, its first in nearly four decades. The chipmaker continues to face margin and market share pressure from AMD and lags in its foundry ambitions compared to Taiwan’s TSMC.
The investment aligns with SoftBank’s broader U.S. semiconductor push. Earlier this year, SoftBank and Foxconn announced a joint project in Ohio to develop advanced chip packaging capabilities, targeting demand from U.S.-based data centres and AI compute infrastructure. The project is intended to support U.S. reshoring efforts and create supply redundancy amid geopolitical trade risks.
The Intel deal follows speculation that the U.S. government may also take an equity stake, following a meeting between Intel’s new CEO Lip-Bu Tan and President Donald Trump. The White House has not commented. A Japanese government source confirmed the investment is not part of Tokyo’s $550 billion U.S. economic cooperation package.
SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son said the company sees Intel playing a critical role in U.S. semiconductor expansion. Intel shares rose 5.6% in after-hours trading. SoftBank stock declined over 5% on the Tokyo exchange the following day.
