SoftBank, fintech firm PayPay in talks to invest in retail giant Seven & i: Report

SoftBank Corp and mobile payments operator PayPay are ​in talks to invest ​in retail giant Seven & i Holdings, Bloomberg News ​reported on Friday.

The investment will likely total several hundred billion yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Card, a unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, may also take a ‌stake, Bloomberg ⁠said.

Reuters could ⁠not immediately verify the report. SoftBank, Seven & i, PayPay and SMFG declined ​to comment.


Seven & i operates 7-Eleven stores worldwide, with Japan and the U.S. its largest markets.

If the investment comes to fruition it would be a welcome boost for embattled Seven & i, which has failed ​to turn around its flagging business a ⁠year after ‌its prolonged tussle with Canadian convenience store rival ​Alimentation Couche-Tard, ​which had sought to take it over in ⁠what would have been Japan's largest ever foreign ​buyout.

Seven & i has been under pressure from investors ​for years about its lacklustre returns and faced calls for it to focus on its core convenience store business.

In March 2025 it agreed to sell off its supermarkets business, comprising stores that are much bigger than convenience stores and which ‌operated under separate brand names, to private equity firm Bain Capital.

SoftBank is aiming to use its in-house ​artificial intelligence to ​improve store management ⁠and look to introduce autonomous robots to reduce manpower in Seven & i stores, Bloomberg said.

SoftBank Corp, the domestic telecommunications arm of SoftBank ​Group, has been developing AI tools for enterprise clients with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

OpenAI has been the focus of a giant investment push, with SoftBank Group's cumulative commitment investment set to exceed $60 billion by the end of 2026.