SoftBank's Next AI Move? DigitalBridge Rockets 46% on Takeover Buzz

A nearly 50% surge in a single trading session is enough to catch any investor's attention. When the company is DigitalBridge Group (NYSE: DBRG) and the rumored suitor is technology giant SoftBank Group (OTCMKTS: SFTBF), it signals a major shift in how the market values the building blocks of the digital economy.

On Dec. 5, shares of DigitalBridge skyrocketed 46%, closing at $14.20 on staggering volume of nearly 56 million shares, or roughly ten times its daily average. The catalyst was a series of credible reports that SoftBank is in advanced talks to acquire the digital infrastructure firm. This potential deal begs a critical question: What does a tech titan like SoftBank see in DigitalBridge that the market has been missing, and what does this mean for the stock's future? The answer lies not just in assets, but in the one resource that has become the most critical constraint in the age of artificial intelligence (AI): power.

AI's New Oil: The Power Bank Premium

To understand the rumored premium SoftBank is willing to pay, investors must look beyond DigitalBridge’s portfolio of data centers and focus on what enables them. The company controls a massive power bank of 20.9 gigawatts (GW) across its global assets. In an industry where securing energy can take years of navigating regulatory hurdles and grid capacity issues, having this power ready for deployment is a nearly insurmountable competitive advantage.

This is more than a theoretical asset. DigitalBridge proved its ability to convert this power into revenue in the third quarter of 2025 by leasing a record 2.6 GW of data center capacity. This single quarter of activity represented roughly one-third of the entire U.S. hyperscale leasing market, a clear signal that when AI's biggest players need to expand, they turn to DigitalBridge’s portfolio.

This is the core of the time premium SoftBank appears willing to pay. While capital can eventually build data centers, it cannot instantly create a decade's worth of power entitlements. Acquiring DigitalBridge allows a buyer to bypass this lengthy process, gaining immediate access to AI Factories like those being developed by portfolio company Vantage Data Centers:

• Frontier Campus (Texas): A large $25 billion, 1.4 GW development.
• Lighthouse Campus (Wisconsin): A $15 billion, 1.0 GW project.

These builds are backed by long-term contracts from AI leaders like Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) and OpenAI. For SoftBank, buying DigitalBridge is an acceleration play, providing the infrastructure needed to deploy its capital and AI-powering GPUs now, not years from now.

Good Fundamentals Hiding in Plain Sight

Before the takeover buzz, DigitalBridge traded below $10 a share. This price was disconnected from the value of its underlying assets, with many analysts' valuations placing its intrinsic worth in the $25 to $35 range.

This gap was partly fueled by complex accounting. On the surface, DigitalBridge's third-quarter GAAP revenue of just $3.8 million looked weak. However, this number was misleading. It was skewed by a $120.2 million non-cash accounting item, an unrealized carried interest reversal. Think of it like a paper loss on a long-term investment that doesn't affect the company's actual cash flow. This rule can temporarily hide strong performance.

The metric that matters for investors is Fee-Related Earnings (FRE), which represents stable, recurring profits from managing capital. Here, DigitalBridge is excelling. Its Q3 2025 report showed that this metric grew an impressive 43% year-over-year. This powerful earnings engine was already attracting institutional smart money, proven by the successful $11.7 billion close of its flagship fund in November. The SoftBank news simply forced the broader market to recognize the fundamental strength that was already there.

A Win-Win? 2 Scenarios for Shareholders

For current investors, the situation presents a positive inflection point, regardless of the deal's outcome.

Scenario 1 (Acquisition Succeeds): Shareholders would likely realize an immediate and significant premium. Even after the initial surge, the stock's price at $14.20 remains well below the rumored takeout range, suggesting further upside if a deal is formalized.

Scenario 2 (Standalone Operation): If talks fall through, the SoftBank bid has put a permanent spotlight on DigitalBridge's undervaluation and strategic dominance. The company is now firmly in play as the premier AI infrastructure platform. This could force the market to re-rate the stock on its own strong fundamentals or attract other potential suitors.

The SoftBank news is more than a random stock market event. It is a catalyst that forced the market to recognize DigitalBridge's true identity: not just a real estate company, but a critical utility for the AI revolution. The company’s control over the digital economy's most vital resource, power, is its ultimate competitive advantage, positioning it to create long-term value for its shareholders.

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