SoftBank’s billion-dollar loss may have put a cap on AI’s natural gas ambitions

SoftBank’s billion-dollar loss may have put a cap on AI’s natural gas ambitions.

SoftBank lost over $3 billion pre-ordering natural gas turbines to power AI data centers.

Capacity and supply

Key points: SoftBank’s billion-dollar loss may have put a cap on AI's natural gas ambitions | TechCrunch

SoftBank’s. Witness its $30 billion bet on OpenAI in early 2025 or its announcement in February that its SB Energy subsidiary.

Here's what the loss means to power markets.

Witness its $30 billion bet on OpenAI in early 2025 or its announcement in February that its SB Energy subsidiary would spend $33 billion on a 9.2-gigawatt natural gas power plant.

Who gets access first

If you can’t be first, be biggest, I guess.

That philosophy apparently spilled over into procurement, where orders were also supersized.

Starting about two years ago, SoftBank reportedly put down deposits on more than 13 gigawatts of turbines, almost 50% more than it needed.

Market read-through

The decision to over-order undoubtedly helped secure turbines and speed up SoftBank’s projects.

“SB Energy did not have a choice except to overbook turbines in the future if they wanted some turbines right away,” Peter Gardett, CEO of Noreva , told TechCrunch via email.

The energy world was caught off guard by the swiftness and magnitude of AI’s rising power demands.