Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is in discussions to secure as much as $40 billion in bridge financing, aiming to deepen its commitment to artificial intelligence through further investments in OpenAI, according to Bloomberg’s sources.
The short-term loan, targeting a duration of approximately 12 months, is being structured by a group of four lead banks, including JPMorgan. Negotiations for final terms are ongoing, and the specifics of the financing package may shift as talks progress, the sources indicated.
This effort to secure substantial backing underlines founder Masayoshi Son’s ambition to reinforce SoftBank’s position in AI, building on a $30 billion investment commitment to OpenAI—an investment sum that follows on the heels of over $30 billion previously allocated to the company.
OpenAI has emerged as the central pillar of SoftBank’s AI objectives, similar to previous, transformative bets on high-growth names like ByteDance and Alibaba, but now involving greater capital deployment.
SoftBank’s financing activities have included the sale of assets, such as its stake in Nvidia, to support growing expenditures related to OpenAI. By the end of the prior year, SoftBank held roughly 11% of OpenAI, marking it as one of the firm’s leading assets alongside a nearly 90% interest in Arm Holdings, even as other portfolio activities have slowed.
Despite the perceived promise of AI, SoftBank’s ongoing investment scale has raised caution in the financial community. S&P recently revised the conglomerate’s credit outlook downward, noting that sustained deployment of capital toward OpenAI could strain liquidity and affect asset quality.
Since 2025, SoftBank Group has relied heavily on both debt issuance and asset divestitures to finance more than $70 billion in AI initiatives, intensifying its leverage and putting further pressure on its credit metrics, particularly in relation to S&P’s adjusted loan-to-value threshold of 35%.
