SoftBank Group sealed an upsized $11.87 billion two-year loan from roughly 20 banks last week, beating its initial $10 billion target, to help finance its investment in OpenAI. The Tokyo-based conglomerate, led by Masayoshi Son, is on track to pour close to $65 billion into the ChatGPT maker by October.
The fresh financing lands as SoftBank shares slid as much as 13% on Monday, their sharpest drop since late June, as equity investors grow wary of whether the AI spending spree can justify current valuations. Credit markets are telling a different story: the loan was oversubscribed, showing banks remain confident enough to keep lending against the bet.
SoftBank also plans to use part of the proceeds to retire the remaining $25.9 billion balance on an earlier $40 billion bridge loan, due September 15. The financing underscores how deep SoftBank has gone into OpenAI even as broader AI-stock jitters ripple through markets this week.