OpenAI Misses Targets, Triggering 9.86% Crash in SoftBank Group Shares; IPO Plans Also Clouded

Late on April 27 (US Eastern Time), the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet its 2025 annual revenue target and its internal goal of 1 billion weekly active users for ChatGPT, and also missed multiple monthly revenue targets entering 2026. The following day, April 28, in the Tokyo market, SoftBank Group shares closed at 5,268 yen, down 9.86% from the previous day, recording the largest decline among Nikkei 225 component stocks. With cumulative investment in OpenAI on the scale of $64.6 billion (approximately ¥9.7 trillion) and an assumed stake of roughly 13%, the company has effectively become an "OpenAI pure play," and its concentrated risk structure is once again being scrutinized by Silicon Valley VCs and US analysts. Drawing on various Japanese and US reports, this article reconstructs—from a Silicon Valley VC perspective—the comments of parties and experts including [a16z](https://newsify.tv/investors/andreessen-horowitz), [Sequoia](https://newsify.tv/investors/sequoia-capital), and Deepwater, the supply-demand reversal in the secondary market, and the opacity around the IPO process expected around Q4 2026. ---