SoftBank acquires DigitalBridge for $4B as CEO warns of dot-com bubble echoes

SoftBank is paying roughly $4 billion to acquire DigitalBridge Group, a US-based asset manager that oversees data centers, cell towers, and fiber networks. The December 29 announcement values DigitalBridge at $16 per share, a 15% premium over where the stock was trading before the deal surfaced.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory sign-off. DigitalBridge will continue operating as a standalone entity, with CEO Marc Ganzi staying on to run the business.

A $108 billion portfolio and a very loud warning

Ganzi’s firm manages approximately $108 billion in digital infrastructure assets, and he’s selling to one of the most aggressive AI investors on the planet at a premium.

But Ganzi is also doing something unusual for someone in his position: warning that the industry he just sold into might be getting ahead of itself.

He described the current AI infrastructure moment as “toppy-esque,” invoking the late 1990s dot-com bubble as a reference point. He pointed to a specific and measurable shift in how data center deals are being financed.

Loan-to-value ratios have climbed from a historically conservative range around 45% to levels as high as 70% to 80% in some transactions.

Ganzi did draw a distinction though. Long-term, contracted data center agreements, where a hyperscaler commits to years of capacity at a fixed rate, offer more stability than speculative builds. The risk, in his reading, is concentrated in the deals chasing growth without that contractual floor underneath them.

SoftBank’s AI infrastructure bet

For SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, this acquisition fits squarely into a larger thesis. SoftBank has positioned itself as a central node in the AI buildout, with partnerships involving OpenAI and Oracle already on the books. Adding DigitalBridge gives the firm direct exposure to the physical layer of AI, the data centers and fiber that the models actually run on.

DigitalBridge itself has a long institutional history. The firm evolved from Colony Capital, a real-estate-focused investment group that pivoted to digital infrastructure and rebranded as DigitalBridge in 2021. Among its holdings is a stake in Vantage Data Centers, one of the larger wholesale data center operators in the market.