Borrow money if necessary! SoftBank plans to raise a record-breaking $40 billion to invest in OpenAI.

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SoftBank Group is seeking up to $40 billion in financing to support its massive bet on OpenAI, which would become the company's largest ever pure-dollar borrowing. This move once again highlights founder Masayoshi Son's strong determination to make SoftBank a core hub of the global AI wave.

According to media reports, SoftBank is negotiating with banks for a bridge loan with a term of around 12 months, with four institutions including JPMorgan Chase participating in underwriting. Negotiations are ongoing and details may be subject to adjustments. Both JPMorgan Chase and SoftBank spokespersons declined to comment.

The sheer size of this debt has further intensified concerns among market observers about SoftBank's financial stability. Earlier this week, S&P downgraded SoftBank's credit outlook, citing concerns that investment in OpenAI could damage its liquidity and asset credit quality.

SoftBank currently holds about 11% of OpenAI, which, along with chip design company Arm, has become SoftBank's most important core assets. This strategy closely ties SoftBank's stock performance to ChatGPT's competitive dynamics against Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude.

The largest dollar loan in history, JPMorgan and three other banks as joint underwriters

Bloomberg, citing insiders, reported that SoftBank is seeking a bridge loan of up to $40 billion, mainly to fund its equity investment in OpenAI. If completed, this would be SoftBank's largest-ever pure dollar-denominated borrowing.

The loan term is about 12 months, with four banks including JPMorgan responsible for underwriting. The insiders requested anonymity as the matter is private. Negotiations are ongoing and the final terms are not yet determined.

Bloomberg notes that SoftBank's investment in OpenAI has already exceeded the $30 billion planned in this deal, having previously injected more than $30 billion into the startup, making the total bet remarkable.

Masayoshi Son's wager on OpenAI is seen by outsiders as a continuation of his early investments in Alibaba and ByteDance—though at a far higher price than before. To fund this bet, SoftBank has successively sold holdings including Nvidia.

SoftBank now also holds about 90% equity in Arm, another heavyweight asset. Overall, SoftBank's share price performance now largely depends on OpenAI's market performance and valuation expectations.

Credit under pressure, S&P lowers outlook, AI bubble worries persist

This week, S&P lowered SoftBank's credit outlook, citing concerns that its investment in OpenAI could place pressure on liquidity and asset portfolio credit quality.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sharon Chen pointed out that SoftBank's $30 billion investment in OpenAI further drags down its credit status, with little room left under S&P's 35% adjusted loan-to-value (LTV) threshold. Since 2025, SoftBank has relied on debt financing and asset sales, raising more than $70 billion for AI investments, resulting in a heavy debt burden and a decline in portfolio quality.

Sharon Chen also warned that macroeconomic uncertainties and worries over an AI bubble both pose risks to SoftBank's LTV ratio, affecting the timing of OpenAI's IPO, a key positive catalyst. Volatility in SoftBank bonds is expected to persist, with supply pressures and market risk aversion widening credit spreads.

Diversified investments increase debt demand, leverage continues to rise

Besides OpenAI, SoftBank has recently launched several intensive investments, further increasing capital needs. SoftBank and OpenAI together invested $1 billion in infrastructure company SB Energy to support U.S. data center construction; it also spent about $3 billion to acquire private equity firm DigitalBridge Group Inc. Last year, SoftBank acquired U.S. chip designer Ampere Computing LLC for $6.5 billion and submitted a $5.4 billion bid for ABB Ltd.'s robotics division.

To support its expanding investment portfolio, SoftBank has increased the margin loan size, using its mobile subsidiary SoftBank Corp. and chip subsidiary Arm as collateral. Bloomberg Intelligence notes that SoftBank could raise over $10 billion by selling its holdings in T-Mobile and listed tech stocks other than Arm, and benefits from Japanese yen market financing channels, but overall debt pressure remains significant.

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