Sam Altman's business buddies are getting stung

AS INVESTORS START to take sides in the AI race, Sam Altman's buddies are getting burned.

- SHULI REN

SoftBank Group's shares have tumbled 40% from late October, while Oracle's stock has given up all gains made since early September, when the legacy database software company all of a sudden got an AI halo after announcing a $300-billion computing deal with OpenAI.

The trio are partners in the $500-billion Stargate AI infrastructure project, which aims to build data centres across the US. In addition, in March, SoftBank's Chairman Masayoshi Son managed to strike a venture capital deal with Altman, promising to invest $30 billion by year-end.

Investors are now questioning the ChatGPT maker's dominance after Alphabet released its newest multipurpose Gemini 3 model—which won glowing reviews— as well as how a weakened OpenAI may affect its partners' businesses.