SoftBank issues $11.1 billion in bonds in OpenAI financing push
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FILE PHOTO: Softbank Group’s logo at its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, September 1, 2026. REUTERS/Manami Yamada/File Photo
By Anton Bridge
TOKYO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Tech investor SoftBank Group has issued $11.1 billion in dollar- and euro-denominated bonds, set to be the largest high-yield bond sale on record by an Asia-Pacific issuer as it seeks to fund its mammoth bet on OpenAI.
The funding comes on top of a 1 trillion yen ($6.3 billion) bond issue aimed at retail investors this month, and is likely to prompt further scrutiny of SoftBank's finances, which could be vulnerable should market sentiment turn against OpenAI and other AI firms.
SoftBank has committed $64.6 billion to OpenAI as well as billions more in related AI infrastructure projects, part of founder Masayoshi Son's push to make the Japanese conglomerate a dominant investor in the sector.
SoftBank issued dollar-denominated senior notes of $1 billion at a 3-1/2-year term, $4.5 billion at 5-1/2 years and $4.5 billion at 7-1/2 years, a filing showed. The bonds pay interest rates of 8.625%, 9.25% and 9.75% respectively.
It also issued two €500 million tranches of euro-denominated senior notes with terms of four and six years, yielding 7.125% and 8%, the filing showed.
The cost of insuring SoftBank's debt against default has shot up since June, with the five-year credit default swap spread exceeding 400 basis points this week, up from around 280 basis points in June and around 200 basis points in October 2025.
SoftBank's share price, however, rose more than 6% in morning trading on Thursday after Tokyo markets were closed from Monday to Wednesday this week for national holidays.
SoftBank says it aims to keep the ratio of loans to the total value of its assets under 25% in normal conditions, rising to 35% in extraordinary circumstances.
At the end of June this year its loan-to-value ratio stood at 13%.
($1=158.2500 yen)
(Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Edwina Gibbs)
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