SoftBank’s $10bn Bid Sends DigitalBridge Shares Soaring 50%

The Call That Lit Up Wall Street

It was just after 9:30 a.m. in New York when traders on the floor of the NYSE saw the first headline cross their screens: SoftBank in advanced talks to buy DigitalBridge. Within minutes, DigitalBridge—until then a mid-cap data-center landlord—was the most-searched ticker on Bloomberg terminals worldwide. By noon, the stock had vaulted 52 %, erasing a year of losses and adding more than $3.4 billion in market value.

Inside the Deal

People close to the negotiations, who asked not to be named because the talks are private, say SoftBank is offering roughly $10 billion in cash and assumed debt. The Japanese conglomerate sees DigitalBridge’s 300-data-center footprint as the missing puzzle piece for its $100 billion Vision Fund 3, which is pivoting from consumer tech to AI infrastructure.

“We are no longer betting on apps; we are betting on the pipes that make apps run,” SoftBank’s chief financial officer told investors on last week’s earnings call—words that now read like a roadmap.

Why DigitalBridge, Why Now?

DigitalBridge was spun out of Colony Capital in 2019 with a single mission: turn server farms into cash cows. It now owns or operates facilities in 27 countries, including hyperscale campuses in Northern Virginia, Frankfurt, and Mumbai. Analysts at J.P. Morgan estimate global data-center demand will triple by 2028, fueled by generative-AI workloads that require ten times the power of traditional cloud tasks.

• DigitalBridge’s average lease expires in 2031, locking in 8 % annual rent escalators.
• Its power-purchase agreements shield 70 % of operating costs from volatile energy prices.
• The firm recently secured $2.3 billion in green bonds, giving SoftBank an ESG halo.

Market Whiplash

Short sellers, who had increased bearish bets to 12 % of the float last week, scrambled to cover positions, pushing intraday volume to 28 times normal. One hedge-fund manager, speaking from a Midtown rooftop where traders had gathered to watch the ticker, compared the scene to “the final lap of the Kentucky Derby—except every horse is Secretariat.”

What Happens Next

Both companies have entered exclusive talks that could last 30–45 days. Regulatory approval is expected to be straightforward: DigitalBridge’s assets are U.S.-based, and SoftBank already owns stakes in chip designer Arm and warehouse robotics firm Berkshire Grey, giving it familiarity with CFIUS review. If successful, the merger would create the world’s third-largest data-center operator behind Equinix and Digital Realty.

The Human Footnote

For DigitalBridge’s 1,400 employees, the news arrived via a two-sentence email from CEO Marc Ganzi titled “Exciting Times.” One engineer, still holding yesterday’s coffee cup, said the mood in the Reston headquarters was “cautiously euphoric—kind of like when your team is up 3-0 in the World Series, but you still remember 2004.”