SoftBank Plans Record Bond Sales to Fund OpenAI Investment

SoftBank Group Corp. is executing a massive fundraising campaign to support its artificial intelligence portfolio, headlined by a planned 1 trillion yen ($6.3 billion) retail bond sale in Japan. This seven-year offering, the largest by any Japanese issuer in history, is expected to be priced on September 4 with an indicative coupon range of 4.3% to 4.9%. The company intends to use these proceeds to fund AI investments and redeem 400 billion yen in existing corporate bonds.

Beyond the retail market, the conglomerate is negotiating with investment banks for a potential $10 billion to $20 billion bond offering in dollars and euros as early as September. This institutional sale may utilize a 144A format to attract United States investors and would help refinance a $40 billion bridge loan used for its stake in OpenAI. SoftBank has already committed over $60 billion to the AI developer and is projected to invest nearly $65 billion by October.

To sustain this expansion, SoftBank has utilized asset disposals, including sales of holdings in Nvidia and T-Mobile, and recently secured a $10 billion margin loan backed by its OpenAI stake. The fundraising follows a reported quarterly net income of 1.83 trillion yen for the period ending March 31, driven by valuation gains from its OpenAI holdings. Following the retail bond announcement, SoftBank shares in Tokyo fell 2.6% to 5,118 yen.