Investment

Atos and SoftBank announce major deals

Atos and SoftBank announce major deals

Data and AI deals are very much in the news at the moment, thanks notably to a South American sale involving digital giant Atos and plans announced by investment company SoftBank Group to acquire digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge Group.

Atos Group, which describes itself as a global leader of AI-powered digital transformation, has signed a binding agreement for the sale of its South American operations to the Brazilian company Semantix, a specialist in data and artificial intelligence.

The operations sold currently employ about 2,800 professionals across Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Peru.

While there appear to be no financial details available, Atos has explained that this divestment is part of its Genesis transformation plan, aimed at returning the company to sustainable growth and improved profitability by re-focusing on core geographies and assets such as AI, cloud-enabled, secure solutions and services.

As for Semantix, the acquisition, once completed, will expand its portfolio and create one of South America’s largest AI and data enterprise services and technology providers.

But an even bigger sale appears to be under way as Japan’s investment firm SoftBank Group announces plans to acquire digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge Group in a deal valued at US$4 billion, as SoftBank looks to deepen its AI-related portfolio.

DigitalBridge invests in digital infrastructure sectors such as data centres, cell towers, fibre networks, small-cell systems and edge infrastructure, with a portfolio including companies such as AIMS, AtlasEdge, DataBank, Switch, Takanock, Vantage Data Centers, Yondr Group and Zayo. As of late September, DigitalBridge managed around US$108 billion in assets, making it one of the largest dedicated investors in the digital ecosystem. 

Indeed, its areas of operation, via its portfolio companies, have made headlines in these pages in recent years, notably thanks to deals in Malaysia and Brazil.

As of August, according to news website Data Centre Dynamics, the company had 5.4GW of data centre capacity in development or operation.

It notes that the company will continue to operate as a separately managed platform, led by CEO Marc Ganzi, with the deal expected to close in the second half of 2026.



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