SoftBank Group launched a bond sale Monday seeking more than $11 billion combined in dollar- and euro-denominated notes, with proceeds earmarked to cover the Tokyo conglomerate's next multibillion-dollar payment into OpenAI, according to a term sheet reviewed by Bloomberg. If it closes at its intended size, the offering would become the largest non-financial corporate bond deal ever sold out of Asia-Pacific and Japan.
The offering is split into $10 billion of dollar-denominated notes and €1 billion of euro-denominated notes, together worth more than $11 billion. The dollar tranche is structured across three maturities — 3.5, 5.5 and 7.5 years — while the euro portion carries four- and six-year tenors. Pricing is expected Thursday, September 24, with settlement to follow on September 29. Citigroup is leading the dollar notes and JPMorgan is leading the euro notes.
Should the deal close as planned, it would eclipse the $10.93 billion raised by convenience-store operator 7-Eleven Inc. in January 2021, the previous record for a non-financial corporate bond sale from the region.
The proceeds have a specific destination: SoftBank's $10 billion contribution to the third tranche of its follow-on investment in OpenAI, a transaction expected to close October 1. The bonds will also refinance a $10 billion bridge loan SoftBank previously took out to cover that same commitment, effectively converting short-term borrowing into longer-dated debt.
A $64.6 Billion Bet
Once the third tranche closes, SoftBank's cumulative investment in OpenAI will reach roughly $64.6 billion, giving it an ownership stake of about 13 percent and cementing its position as one of the AI lab's largest outside shareholders. The bond sale is the latest sign of how much debt SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is willing to take on to keep pace with rivals in the artificial-intelligence buildout, on top of the company's existing commitments to chip designer Arm and the Stargate data-center venture with OpenAI and Oracle.
The financing method itself marks a shift. SoftBank has historically funded its biggest technology bets through its Vision Fund vehicles, which pool outside capital from sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors and share in both the upside and the losses. Going to the corporate bond market instead means SoftBank itself, rather than a fund with outside limited partners, carries the debt directly on its balance sheet — a structure that concentrates the risk of the OpenAI bet more tightly on the parent company and its shareholders.
Fitch Ratings assigned the proposed notes a BB+ rating — the top rung of speculative, or "junk," grade — and said in a note cited by local coverage of the offering that SoftBank's leverage would rise as a result of the deal but that the company should maintain adequate liquidity and continued access to debt markets. A sub-investment-grade rating on a deal of this size means SoftBank will likely pay a meaningfully higher coupon than a blue-chip industrial borrower would for similar maturities.
Borrowing to Keep Pace
The sheer scale of the offering underscores how capital-intensive the AI race has become for even the deepest-pocketed backers. SoftBank has increasingly turned to debt markets and asset sales — including a partial exit from its Nvidia stake earlier this year — to fund its OpenAI commitments without diluting its equity holders. Bond investors will be watching Thursday's pricing closely for a read on how much appetite remains for AI-linked corporate debt after a year of record capital spending across the sector.
That appetite has, so far, appeared strong. Investors have absorbed a steady stream of debt tied to the AI buildout this year, from data-center project financing to chipmakers' own bond sales, generally without demanding the kind of risk premium that would signal serious doubt about the sector's trajectory. A BB+ rating on an $11 billion deal is nonetheless a reminder that SoftBank, despite its scale, is borrowing at speculative-grade terms to make good on a bet whose ultimate payoff — OpenAI's path to sustained profitability — remains unproven.
For now, the mechanics are straightforward: SoftBank prices the notes this week, settles the sale next Tuesday, and uses the proceeds to make good on a payment due days later as OpenAI's third investment tranche closes October 1. Whether the market absorbs an $11 billion deal smoothly — or demands a steeper discount — will be an early signal of how investors are pricing the risk embedded in the AI investment boom.
