HONG KONG — SoftBank Group Corp has launched $10 billion and 1 billion euro-denominated senior unsecured notes to fund its investment in OpenAI, a term sheet showed on Monday.
The dollar-denominated notes are split into 3-1/2-year, 5-1/2-year and 7-1/2-year tenors, while the euro-denominated bonds are split into 4-year and 6-year tenors, according to the term sheet.
Proceeds will be used to fund SoftBank’s $10 billion payment for the third tranche of its follow-on investment in OpenAI, which is expected to close on Oct. 1, and for general corporate purposes, the term sheet said.
SoftBank earlier secured a $10 billion bridge loan facility to fund its OpenAI investment, and the bonds will be cancelling that, according to the term sheet.
The bond issuances are expected to price on Sept. 24 and settle on Sept. 29, the term sheet said.
SoftBank Group could not be immediately reached for comment as it was a holiday in Japan.
Building debt for AI investments
Citigroup and JPMorgan are lead bookrunners of the notes, according to the term sheet.
SoftBank has committed close to $65 billion to OpenAI and has been raising debt to finance its growing investments in artificial intelligence.
In March, the company entered into a $40 billion bridge loan to fund an additional investment in OpenAI. It has since repaid the outstanding $25.9 billion on that facility.
SoftBank has also increased other borrowing facilities. It raised a margin loan backed by shares of chip designer Arm Holdings by $5 billion to $25 billion and secured an additional $450 million on an existing credit line, taking that facility to $6.5 billion.
Apollo Global Management is also in talks to increase a loan to SoftBank by $3.6 billion to $9 billion to help finance its investment in OpenAI. Separately, SoftBank secured an $11.87 billion loan for the same purpose.
Together, these transactions amount to about $20.92 billion in committed and potential new debt to finance SoftBank’s push into AI, including its commitment to OpenAI.
SoftBank has sold almost $15 billion of bonds across currencies in 2026, making it the largest junk-rated corporate borrower in bond markets so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It also raised a $10 billion loan earlier this year against its OpenAI stake.
