SoftBank raises AI debt

SoftBank is trying to pay for an artificial intelligence buying spree with borrowed money in two places at once: a first-ever euro bond sale in Europe and fresh debt in Japan. Bloomberg reported on April 8 that SoftBank Corp., the telecom unit, was preparing the euro deal while the parent group kept piling into artificial intelligence. (bloomberg.com) The size of the bet is not small. SoftBank Group said on February 27 that it agreed to invest another $30 billion in OpenAI, and that would bring its cumulative OpenAI investment to $64.6 billion for an ownership stake of about 13%. (group.softbank) That $30 billion is being paid in three $10 billion chunks, scheduled for April 1, July 1, and October 1 of 2026. SoftBank said the securities convert into common shares if OpenAI eventually goes public. (group.softbank) The first chunk has already been paid. On April 1, SoftBank said it executed the first $10 billion tranche and funded it with $10 billion borrowed that same day under a bridge facility agreement announced on March 27. (group.softbank) A bridge loan is exactly what it sounds like: money meant to get you across a gap until longer-term funding arrives. In SoftBank’s case, that means short-term borrowing now, with refinancing pressure pushed into the next step. (group.softbank) Ratings agencies started reacting as soon as the OpenAI commitment was announced. Bloomberg reported on March 3 that Standard & Poor’s cut SoftBank Group’s outlook to negative from stable while keeping the long-term issuer rating at BB+, saying the extra $30 billion could hurt liquidity and asset quality. (bloomberg.com) Standard & Poor’s was not worried only about the size of the check. It said OpenAI would become one of SoftBank’s weakest-credit-quality holdings and that the share of unlisted assets in the portfolio would rise above 50%, up from an estimated 42% in December 2025. (bloomberg.com) SoftBank says its guardrails have not changed. In its February 27 filing, the company said it still manages loan-to-value below 25% in normal conditions, with a 35% upper threshold in emergencies, and keeps enough cash to cover bond redemptions for at least the next two years. (group.softbank) The problem is that those guardrails now have to absorb a much larger artificial intelligence position. SoftBank said OpenAI’s pre-money valuation for this round was $730 billion, which means even a small change in that private valuation can swing the paper value of SoftBank’s holdings by billions. (group.softbank) Japan’s own rating market has been watching too. Japan Credit Rating Agency showed on its SoftBank Group rating page that it revised the company’s outlook to negative on April 1, 2025, and on March 30, 2026 assigned a preliminary BBB+ rating to subordinated bonds. (jcr.co.jp) So the story is not just that SoftBank likes artificial intelligence. It is that Masayoshi Son is financing that conviction with a stack of bonds and loans, and every new OpenAI tranche turns the question from “is the technology valuable” into “how much leverage can the balance sheet carry before the next refinance arrives.” (bloomberg.com)