Key facts
- SoftBank's $7.1 billion quarterly loss included over $3 billion tied to power-generating equipment, per TechCrunch.
- SoftBank had put down nonrefundable deposits on more than 13 gigawatts of gas turbines, almost 50% above its needs.
- Peter Gardett of Noreva said SB Energy had no choice but to overbook turbines to get any right away.
- Gardett said the charge was price discovery, with SoftBank overpaying and over-ordering rather than risking a turbine shortfall.
- Brent Nelson of Ascend Analytics said a grid connection, backed by large batteries, may serve most data centers best.
SoftBank reported a $7.1 billion quarterly loss on November 10, 2026, with more than half stemming from losses on power-generating equipment, TechCrunch reported. The investor had paid turbine manufacturers nonrefundable deposits to secure orders and now considers much of that spend worthless, a charge of over $3 billion.
Starting about two years before the report, SoftBank put down deposits on more than 13 gigawatts of turbines, almost 50% more than it needed, according to TechCrunch. The over-order helped secure equipment and speed projects. "SB Energy did not have a choice except to overbook turbines in the future if they wanted some turbines right away," Peter Gardett, CEO of Noreva, told TechCrunch via email.
SoftBank's earlier gas commitments included a February 2026 announcement that SB Energy would spend $33 billion on a 9.2-gigawatt natural gas power plant, and a $30 billion bet on OpenAI in early 2025. Turbine order queues now extend into the early 2030s as AI power demand rose faster than the energy world expected.
Gardett said the charge was price discovery: SoftBank overpaid and over-ordered rather than risk being short of turbines. Brent Nelson, senior managing director of markets and strategy at Ascend Analytics, told the Equity podcast on Wednesday that natural gas carries risks including winter curtailments when supplies dip and demand spikes, and that most data centers would be best served by a grid connection backed by large batteries.
TechCrunch reported that SoftBank's losses are unlikely to trigger mass cancellations of gas power plants because AI power demand appears too large for that.