SB Energy delays IPO amid investor skepticism over valuation

SB Energy, SoftBank’s data center and power infrastructure developer, filed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC on September 1, 2026, targeting a Nasdaq listing under the ticker SBE. The plan was to raise between $5 billion and $7 billion at a valuation of roughly $50 billion, positioning itself as a foundational player in the AI infrastructure build-out.

The numbers behind the hesitation

SB Energy’s pitch rests on a backlog it values at approximately $439 billion, tied primarily to data center leases connected to OpenAI. The company has contracted 8.8 gigawatts of data center capacity across Texas and Ohio. None of it is operational yet.

The company expects to convert roughly 10% of its backlog into revenue over the next six years. SB Energy reported $139 million in revenue for the first half of 2026, all of it coming from legacy renewables business. Against that, the company posted net losses of $3.21 billion over the same period.

SB Energy has flagged over $170 billion in projected capital expenditures. The company’s own filings warn of construction risks, permitting hurdles, community opposition, and financing dependencies that could slow or derail those plans.

Nvidia has committed $1.5 billion as a private placement.

The OpenAI problem

SB Energy’s business model leans heavily on its relationship with OpenAI, which represents the dominant source of its contracted backlog. OpenAI’s own IPO has been delayed, and the company has shifted toward private funding discussions rather than a near-term public listing.

Cross-border capital and what comes next

SB Energy has added a Japanese retail tranche to its IPO structure, targeting up to $500 million from investors in Japan. Pricing for the offering was anticipated for the week of September 21, 2026, though the delay announcement has introduced uncertainty around that timeline.