SoftBank is in talks to acquire data center operator Switch.

The Japanese investment and telecoms giant has held discussions with the company's leadership and is conducting due diligence on the business, Bloomberg reports.

SoftBank is separately said to be in talks to acquire Switch’s primary backer, DigitalBridge. DigitalBridge had around $108 billion of assets under management at the end of September, including Switch, but the acquisition would be of the management firm, worth $2.5bn.

Switch is seeking around $50 billion, including debt, and is also working towards going public next year.

The company was acquired by DigitalBridge and IFM back in 2022 for $11 billion.

Founded by billionaire Rob Roy, Switch regularly touts its proprietary designs and patent portfolio. The Las Vegas-based data center business operates large 'Prime' data center campuses in Austin, Texas; Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Atlanta, Georgia. Over the last year, it has filed to expand further in Austin and Atlanta.

In July, it announced it was developing smaller, denser data centers specifically for AI workloads.

Its Core Campus, located in Las Vegas, Nevada, will have up to 495MW of power upon full build-out.

SoftBank's own eccentric billionaire, Masayoshi Son, has sought to invest heavily in the AI boom.

The company is one of the primary backers of OpenAI's Stargate data center project (and of OpenAI itself), but has yet to provide all the money it pledged.

This November, the company sold its entire stake in Nvidia for $5.83bn to help fund its OpenAI plans - a move that Son said made him cry.