Japan’s SoftBank

on Monday said it has agreed to buy data center investment firm DigitalBridge for $4 billion as part of its artificial intelligence push.

The deal, which has been unanimously approved by a special committee of DigitalBridge’s Board of Directors, will see SoftBank acquire all the outstanding common stock of DigitalBridge for $16 per share in cash.

This represents a 15% premium to DigitalBridge’s closing share price on Dec. 26, according to SoftBank.

SoftBank CEO and Chairman Masayoshi Son said the acquisition “will strengthen the foundation for next-generation AI data centers” and advance the firm’s vision to become a leading “Artificial Super Intelligence” platform provider.

“As AI transforms industries worldwide, we need more compute, connectivity, power, and scalable infrastructure,” Son said in a statement.

Shares of DigitalBridge last jumped about 10%. The firm’s share price had climbed as much as 50%.

The agreement between SoftBank and DigitalBridge comes amid a global boom for the infrastructure that underpins AI applications.

Source: cnbccnbc