SB Energy seeks $500 million from Japan for U.S. IPO

SB Energy's plan to raise as much as $500 million in Japan follows a handful of large global deals that have tapped the country's deep pools of household capital. The company filed for its U.S. IPO this month, and its investor base already includes OpenAI and Nvidia as strategic backers, with Nvidia separately agreeing to buy $1.5 billion in nonvoting shares at the IPO price. The offering is being arranged in part by Mizuho, whose U.S. arm will use Mizuho Financial Group, Daiwa Securities Group, PayPay Securities, Rakuten Securities and SBI Holdings as selling agents.

The timing reflects both the scale of AI infrastructure spending and the rarity of sizable listings in Japan. SB Energy combines data centers with solar power and battery storage, and has 8.8 gigawatts of data center capacity contracted or under construction across campuses in Texas and Ohio, plus power projects delivering 5.5 gigawatts. Analysts at UBS Group expect $511 billion to be spent on energy by 2030 to close a power demand gap largely driven by data centers, while an IDC estimate cited in the filing puts the global economic impact of AI infrastructure at $20 trillion by 2030.

For Japanese investors, the appeal is direct exposure to that buildout — something SpaceX offered in June when it raised $2.2 billion locally. Whether SB Energy matches that scale likely depends on how retail demand holds up in a market where only Go's $607 million IPO has crossed the $500 million mark this year. The warrants issued to OpenAI, with 2.25 million expiring in 2036, add another link between the AI company and the infrastructure it relies on.