SoftBank Makes U-Turn on Bitcoin (BTC) With $50M Investment in Cipher Mining

Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, has opined that this is a "huge endorsement" for the diversified Bitcoin/AI model from SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son.

SoftBank Group has made a $50 million investment into industrial-scale Bitcoin mining company Cipher Mining.

According to VanEck head of digital asset research Matthew Sigel, this marks a "huge endorsement" for the diversified Bitcoin/AI model from SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son.

"This is a huge endorsement for Son’s model of diversifying into both Bitcoin and AI. We continue to believe that Bitcoin will be a key technology for the AI revolution, and that this will drive institutional demand for both asset classes in the coming years," Sigel wrote in a note to clients on Monday.

Cipher CEO Tyler Page said that the company was "thrilled" to welcome the Japanese financial giant as an investor.

"We are thrilled to welcome SoftBank as an investor in Cipher Mining. This marks an important milestone in our journey to build the cleanest, most efficient Bitcoin mining company in the world. We look forward to working closely with SoftBank to further our mission and continue to drive value for our shareholders," Page said in a statement.

Son, the third-richest Japanese person, initially invested in Bitcoin at the peak of the 2017 bubble. As reported by U.Today, he ended up losing as much as $160 million after deciding to sell his Bitcoin holdings at a huge loss due to viewing it as a distraction.

Obviously, the disastrous Bitcoin bet hardly made a dent in his massive net worth, which currently stands at a whopping $31.3 billion

In 2020, he predicted that digital currencies would be "useful," but he stopped short of singling out a single token.

Softbank's AI bet

Earlier this week, it was reported that SoftBank was preparing to make a staggering $25 billion million investment in OpenAI. The terms of the investment are yet to be fleshed out, according to the New York Times.

The Japanese behemoth is also part of the $100 billion AI project called Stargate.