SoftBank sinks 11% as OpenAI delays its IPO
Tokyo's selloff on Monday came after OpenAI paired the IPO delay with a call to slow work on ever more powerful models, Nikkei Asia reports.
In short
SoftBank Group's shares fell 11% in Tokyo on Monday after OpenAI said it would postpone its stock market debut and join calls to slow the development of increasingly powerful AI models.
At a glance
- SoftBank shares dropped 11% on Monday, with Nikkei Asia pointing to OpenAI's announcement as the trigger.
- OpenAI is postponing its initial public offering; it will not happen this year.
- OpenAI is joining calls to slow the development of increasingly powerful models.
- Nikkei Asia dated the report September 14, 2026; the byline is Jada Nagumo.
- Not verifiable here: the size of SoftBank's OpenAI stake — the article body sits behind a paywall.
SoftBank Group lost 11% in Tokyo trading on Monday. Nikkei Asia ties the drop to one piece of news out of OpenAI: the ChatGPT maker is putting off its stock market debut and, in the same breath, backing calls to slow work on increasingly powerful AI models.
Why one announcement moved the stock this far
A delayed listing takes away the date investors were anchoring a valuation to. The second half of the message cuts deeper, because a company arguing for a slower build-out is implicitly revising the timetable the rest of the market has been pricing in. Both parts landed on the same morning.
Nikkei Asia frames the session more broadly. Safety worries around AI weighed on Asian tech stocks generally, and a jump in oil prices added to the pressure. The report does not break out how much each of those factors contributed to SoftBank's 11% move.
What the accessible text actually supports
Without a subscription, only the headline, the standfirst, the byline and the opening sentence of the report are readable. That supports the 11% decline, the date of Monday, September 14, 2026, and the substance of what OpenAI said. It does not support a closing price, a stake size, Vision Fund figures, analyst commentary, or the moves of any other individual stock that day, and the readable portion does not identify who at OpenAI delivered the message.
One limit is worth stating plainly: this story reached us from a single independent newsroom, so there is no second, independent confirmation of the 11% figure.
What to watch next
Two questions follow from the report without being answered in it. The first is whether OpenAI names a new listing window. The second is what a slower pace of development turns into in practice. Until either is on the record, Monday's move reads as a reaction to a schedule rather than to a product or an earnings number.
FAQ
Why did SoftBank stock fall 11%?
Nikkei Asia attributes Monday's decline to OpenAI saying it would delay its IPO and join calls for slowing the development of more powerful AI models. The accessible part of the report does not break the move down into individual drivers.
When will OpenAI go public?
No date is known. The report says OpenAI is postponing the listing and that it will not take place this year; no replacement window appears in the readable portion of the article.
Was the selloff limited to SoftBank?
No. The report's standfirst describes AI safety concerns pushing Asian tech stocks lower, with an oil price spike adding to the weak sentiment. Other individual stocks and their moves are not named in the accessible text.
