By Kosaku Narioka

SoftBank Group's payments app operator PayPay submitted paperwork for an initial public offering in the U.S., a move that could add to the Japanese company's coffers as it pours billions into AI-related investments.

SoftBank Group said Friday that PayPay confidentially filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. The timing, size and price of the offering have yet to be determined, it said.

The company said PayPay would remain a subsidiary following the listing of American depositary shares on a U.S. stock exchange. The company doesn't expect the listing to have a material effect on its earnings or financial position. The feasibility of the listing is subject to market and other conditions and contingent upon the completion of the SEC's review, it said.

SoftBank Group has said PayPay, which started services in 2018, reached 70 million registered users in mid-July, or about two-thirds of smartphone users in Japan. PayPay's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization achieved profitability in the year ended March 2024.

The IPO filing comes a week after SoftBank Group reported better-than-expected profit for the three months ended June, thanks in part to a recovery in its tech funds business.

The Tokyo-based company, led by billionaire Masayoshi Son, has been making bigger investments in recent months, especially in artificial intelligence, after a yearslong defensive strategy.

SoftBank Group early this year agreed to lead an investment of up to $40 billion in OpenAI, valuing the ChatGPT maker at $300 billion. It also inked a deal to acquire U.S.-based chip designer Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion. More recently, it sold some T-Mobile US shares amounting to $7.8 billion.

The Japanese company and OpenAI in January announced a plan to invest up to half a trillion dollars in AI infrastructure in the U.S., together with other partners. The Stargate project, as the joint venture is known, has struggled to get off the ground and has sharply scaled back its near-term plans, The Wall Street Journal reported in late July.

Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 15, 2025 05:59 ET (09:59 GMT)

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