SoftBank places dollar and euro bonds totaling approximately eleven billion dollars to pay the third installment of its OpenAI stake. The notes replace an existing bridge loan and cover the final of three ten-billion-dollar payments from the investment round announced in February. Pricing is scheduled for September 24, with payment to OpenAI following on October 1.
Bond covers final installment of the investment round
The dollar tranche of ten billion dollars is divided into maturities of three and a half, five and a half, and seven and a half years, while the euro tranche of one billion euros is divided into four and six years. The staggered maturities are intended to appeal to different groups of investors and distribute the repayment risk over several years. Citigroup and JPMorgan are leading the issuance as bookrunners, as reported by Reuters citing a term sheet. The papers will be priced on September 24, with settlement following on September 29 – just in time for the due payment to OpenAI on October 1.
The bond replaces a bridge financing of ten billion dollars that SoftBank had previously taken out for the same purpose. This allows the conglomerate to complete the third and final installment – referred to in industry jargon as a tranche – of its follow-on investment announced in February 2026: Following ten billion dollars each on April 1 and July 1, SoftBank is now paying the final amount. In total, thirty billion dollars of fresh capital from SoftBank will flow to OpenAI.
Valuation rises to 730 billion dollars
The round values OpenAI at 730 billion dollars before the capital influx, as SoftBank stated in its press release regarding the announcement in February. After the completion of all three tranches, SoftBank will have a cumulative commitment of 64.6 billion dollars and an estimated stake of around 13 percent in OpenAI. The shares are structured as preferred stock, which only automatically converts into common stock upon an IPO.
In addition to SoftBank, Amazon also holds a stake in OpenAI with fifty billion dollars – an indication of how widely the AI company is now financed. The conversion mechanism of the preferred shares makes the current refinancing urgent: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had ruled out an IPO for 2026 and cited the ongoing security debate in the industry as the reason. Competitor Anthropic, on the other hand, is sticking to its own IPO plans for October, which further sharpens the contrast to OpenAI’s delay and raises the question of which of the two AI providers will go public first.
Stock plunge reveals dependence on OpenAI
SoftBank’s stock had temporarily fallen by more than ten percent in mid-September after Altman’s rejection of a near-term IPO became known. The trigger was a series of statements from leading AI executives about the pace of development in the industry, which led investors to doubt the short-term marketability of the sector. Kirk Boodry from Bloomberg Intelligence considers the early timing of the new bond to be sensible: It is better to complete a refinancing early than to wait amid the nervousness in the credit markets, he said according to a report by Techi.
In August, SoftBank had already issued a record retail bond in Japan totaling approximately 6.3 billion dollars, also to finance its AI investments. With the current dollar and euro issuance, the conglomerate is now additionally relying on institutional investors outside Japan. Observers interpret the combination of retail and institutional bonds as a sign that SoftBank wants to place its OpenAI commitment on a broader financing base rather than relying on individual lenders.
Crucial will be how the market receives the bond on September 24: The record issuance in August had already shown that investors are closely monitoring SoftBank’s growing external financing for AI expansion. With the completion of the third tranche, the actual litmus test shifts to the point when OpenAI actually goes public – only then will SoftBank’s preferred shares convert into tradable capital, and a date for that remains uncertain following Altman’s rejection.
