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Son Says SoftBank Weighing Stake in TEPCO to Secure AI Power

June 24, 2026 at 00:34 EDT

Infra & Chips
Funding & M&A
Sales & Business

SoftBank Group Corp. CEO Masayoshi Son said on June 24, 2026, at the company's annual shareholders meeting that its telecom unit SoftBank Corp. is weighing an investment in Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), Japan's largest power utility, to secure the large volumes of electricity needed to expand in artificial intelligence.

Spring 2026 · SoftBank Group

SoftBank Eyes a Stake in TEPCO to Power Its AI Ambitions

Masayoshi Son is weighing an investment in Japan's largest utility to lock in the electricity behind a global AI data-center buildout — joining four other suitors in a capital tie-up race for the nationalized power giant.

groups shortlisted for the tie-up, narrowed from dozens of applicants

¥1T+

proposed investment, about $6.3 billion in some bids

¥8T+

government-estimated Fukushima decommissioning burden

SoftBank's Global Power Push, by Data-Center Scale

Columns scaled to capacity in gigawatts (GW). Japan's TEPCO talks center on grid access, not a fixed GW figure.

10GW

Ohio, U.S.

~$33B · gas-powered

5GW

France

€4.5–7.5B · from 2031

Grid

Japan / TEPCO

Tokyo grid + sites · ¥1T+

Why Power, Why Now

AI training & inference
surging power demand

→

Electricity becomes
the key bottleneck

→

Invest in a utility to
lock in supply

TEPCO plans $3.2B+ in transmission and grid reinforcement, including data-center demand in northwestern Chiba — areas a January 2026 rehabilitation plan reframes as growth.

Seen as strategic

Securing power can make or break an AI business — direct ties to grid, former plant sites and SB Energy's renewables offer real synergies.

Sticking points

Heavy Fukushima decommissioning and compensation costs, continued government involvement, and a possible "golden share" veto raise questions over foreign influence.

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