SoftBank is seeking a loan of up to $40 billion, primarily to finance its $30 billion investment in OpenAI. This would be its largest-ever dollar-denominated borrowing, with JPMorgan Chase among the banks underwriting the facility.
The massive investment underscores SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son's aggressive strategy to position the company at the center of the AI boom. This has involved selling other assets, like its Nvidia stake, to fund over $70 billion in AI investments.
However, the scale of the bet has raised concerns about SoftBank's liquidity and credit quality, leading S&P to lower its credit outlook. The company's financial health is now closely tied to OpenAI's performance amidst an uncertain market for AI services.
Main Topics: SoftBank's $40 billion loan pursuit, its massive investment in OpenAI, the strategic shift to dominate AI, and the resulting financial risks and credit concerns.
SoftBank is seeking a loan of as much as $40 billion to mostly help finance its investment in US tech giant OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be its largest-ever borrowing denominated solely in dollars.
The bridge loan would have a tenor of about 12 months, according to some of the people, who asked not to be identified, discussing private matters. Four lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., will be underwriting the facility, the people said.
Talks with banks are ongoing and details could change, the people added. Spokespeople for JPMorgan and SoftBank declined to comment.
The potential size of the loan underscores SoftBank founder Masayoshi Sonâs aggressive bid to try and position his company as a linchpin in the global AI boom. The $30 billion bet on OpenAI comes on top of more than $30 billion the company has already injected into the startup, which now forms the centrepiece of Sonâs ambitions â a gamble reminiscent of his early investments in ByteDance Ltd. or Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., but at a far higher price.
The Japanese company, which held about 11% in OpenAI at the end of December, has unloaded assets including its stake in Nvidia Corp. to bankroll its growing bet on OpenAI. The US company now represents one of SoftBankâs biggest holdings, alongside a roughly 90% stake in chip designer Arm Holdings Plc, even as investments elsewhere slow. Thatâs tethered the Japanese companyâs shares to ChatGPTâs relative performance against Googleâs Gemini and Anthropic PBCâs Claude.
Still, the scale of SoftBankâs bet â as well as persistent concerns about a bubble given the lack of a truly mainstream use case for AI services â has spooked market observers. This week, S&P lowered SoftBankâs credit outlook, citing the danger that its investments in OpenAI may hurt the Japanese companyâs liquidity and the credit quality of its assets.
What Bloomberg Intelligence says
SoftBank Groupâs $30 billion investment in OpenAI is a further drag to its credit profile, with the company facing limited headroom under S&Pâs 35% adjusted LTV threshold. It has been relying on debt and asset sales to fund more than $70 billion of AI investments since 2025, resulting in a large debt burden and weaker portfolio quality. An uncertain macro backdrop and concerns around an AI bubble poses risk to SoftBankâs LTV and the timing of an OpenAI listing â a key positive catalyst. SoftBank needs to raise as much as $40 billion this year. It benefits from strong access to the yen market and can raise more than $10 billion from the sale of T-Mobile and listed tech stocks, excluding Arm. Its bonds are likely to remain volatile, with supply risk and potential risk-off posing spread widening pressure.
SoftBank has also shelled out on smaller bets beyond Sam Altmanâs startup.
SoftBank and OpenAI have jointly invested $1 billion in SB Energy, an infrastructure company working with tech firms on a US buildout of data centers. The company has also agreed to buy private equity firm DigitalBridge Group Inc. for about $3 billion in cash. Last year, it bought US chip designer Ampere Computing LLC for $6.5 billion and proposed a $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB Ltd.âs robotics unit.
All these investments underscore the need for the tech investor to take on large sums of debt. The company has already increased the amount of its margin loans secured by mobile unit SoftBank Corp. and chip unit Arm.
The bridge loan would have a tenor of about 12 months, according to some of the people, who asked not to be identified, discussing private matters. Four lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., will be underwriting the facility, the people said.
Talks with banks are ongoing and details could change, the people added. Spokespeople for JPMorgan and SoftBank declined to comment.
The potential size of the loan underscores SoftBank founder Masayoshi Sonâs aggressive bid to try and position his company as a linchpin in the global AI boom. The $30 billion bet on OpenAI comes on top of more than $30 billion the company has already injected into the startup, which now forms the centrepiece of Sonâs ambitions â a gamble reminiscent of his early investments in ByteDance Ltd. or Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., but at a far higher price.
The Japanese company, which held about 11% in OpenAI at the end of December, has unloaded assets including its stake in Nvidia Corp. to bankroll its growing bet on OpenAI. The US company now represents one of SoftBankâs biggest holdings, alongside a roughly 90% stake in chip designer Arm Holdings Plc, even as investments elsewhere slow. Thatâs tethered the Japanese companyâs shares to ChatGPTâs relative performance against Googleâs Gemini and Anthropic PBCâs Claude.
Still, the scale of SoftBankâs bet â as well as persistent concerns about a bubble given the lack of a truly mainstream use case for AI services â has spooked market observers. This week, S&P lowered SoftBankâs credit outlook, citing the danger that its investments in OpenAI may hurt the Japanese companyâs liquidity and the credit quality of its assets.
What Bloomberg Intelligence says
SoftBank Groupâs $30 billion investment in OpenAI is a further drag to its credit profile, with the company facing limited headroom under S&Pâs 35% adjusted LTV threshold. It has been relying on debt and asset sales to fund more than $70 billion of AI investments since 2025, resulting in a large debt burden and weaker portfolio quality. An uncertain macro backdrop and concerns around an AI bubble poses risk to SoftBankâs LTV and the timing of an OpenAI listing â a key positive catalyst. SoftBank needs to raise as much as $40 billion this year. It benefits from strong access to the yen market and can raise more than $10 billion from the sale of T-Mobile and listed tech stocks, excluding Arm. Its bonds are likely to remain volatile, with supply risk and potential risk-off posing spread widening pressure.
SoftBank has also shelled out on smaller bets beyond Sam Altmanâs startup.
SoftBank and OpenAI have jointly invested $1 billion in SB Energy, an infrastructure company working with tech firms on a US buildout of data centers. The company has also agreed to buy private equity firm DigitalBridge Group Inc. for about $3 billion in cash. Last year, it bought US chip designer Ampere Computing LLC for $6.5 billion and proposed a $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB Ltd.âs robotics unit.
All these investments underscore the need for the tech investor to take on large sums of debt. The company has already increased the amount of its margin loans secured by mobile unit SoftBank Corp. and chip unit Arm.
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