SB Energy, the data center developer owned by SoftBank Group, is considering pushing back its initial public offering to as late as next year, according to a foreign media report. The company is building a large-scale data center for OpenAI in the U.S. state of Ohio.
The Information, a technology news outlet, reported on the 22nd that SB Energy is weighing a delay of its IPO to December of this year or to next year. The outlet had reported in August that the company was aiming to list as early as September, meaning the timeline has slipped substantially.
The shift reflects a rapid deterioration in investor appetite for IPOs by data center and AI cloud companies. Cloud stocks have wobbled recently, with yields on some CoreWeave corporate bonds spiking, prompting other data center developers to reconsider their plans. Australian cloud provider Firmus withdrew its IPO plan earlier this month.
SB Energy made its IPO prospectus public on the 2nd of last month and filed a revised version on the 21st of the same month, according to the report. Companies typically begin roadshows for IPO investors about two weeks after publicly filing a prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But when market conditions turn volatile, the run-up to an actual offering can stretch out.
SB Energy is pursuing the IPO to finance the Ohio data center. It is targeting $5 billion to $7 billion (about 6.61 trillion won to 9.25 trillion won) to fund the facility, which OpenAI is set to lease. The data center will use Nvidia chips and is designed to provide 8.5 gigawatts of computing capacity, backed by a $105 billion credit guarantee from Nvidia.
Investment banks have put SB Energy's valuation at about $60 billion (79.35 trillion won). IPO investors, however, have signaled that figure is hard to accept, The Information said, because the valuation rests solely on projected future revenue at a time when none of the data centers are yet operating.
The Ohio data center accounts for most of the $430 billion in total data center revenue SB Energy has contracted. The company plans to bring the facility online in phases starting in 2028, with revenue generated through lease agreements running 15 to 20 years after operations begin. By contrast, SB Energy posted revenue of $139 million in the first half of this year, or $278 million on an annualized basis. Applying a $60 billion valuation to that revenue puts the price-to-sales ratio above 200. A higher PSR means a company commands a higher valuation relative to its current revenue.
Citing a person familiar with the matter, The Information said SB Energy executives are closely watching Anthropic's large IPO, expected next month. Anthropic is seen as the first AI startup to go public, and if its shares perform well after listing, SB Energy could push ahead with an offering as early as December.