SoftBank completes record $11.1 billion junk-bond sale for OpenAI investment

SoftBank Group completed a record $11.1 billion junk-bond sale in the week of 21 September to help replace a $40 billion bridge loan for its OpenAI investment, Bloomberg reported on 28 September. The sale exceeded Numericable Group’s $10.9 billion issue in 2014 to become the largest corporate high-yield bond offering globally, according to LSEG data reported by The American Bazaar.

SoftBank prices $10 billion in dollar notes

The dollar portion comprises $1 billion of senior notes with a 3-1/2-year term, $4.5 billion with a 5-1/2-year term and $4.5 billion with a 7-1/2-year term. They pay interest rates of 8.625%, 9.25% and 9.75%, respectively. A filing contained those terms, The American Bazaar reported.

SoftBank also issued two €500 million senior-note tranches in euros. The four-year notes yield 7.125%, while the six-year notes yield 8%. The sale followed a 1 trillion yen ($6.3 billion) bond issue aimed at retail investors earlier in September.

The completed dollar sale was the same size as the $10 billion portion SoftBank was seeking when it approached investors. The euro portion also matched the 1 billion euros under discussion before pricing, according to people familiar with the proposed deal cited by the Taipei Times on 22 September.

AI Affairs had covered SoftBank’s planned $11 billion junk-bond sale before the transaction closed. It also reported more than $20 billion of demand during preliminary bookbuilding.

OpenAI investment drives the $40 billion refinancing

SoftBank chose to sell the new securities to institutional investors in the US as it sought a large sum to help replace its $40 billion bridge loan, Bloomberg reported. The offering required groundwork for SoftBank’s first such US institutional sale in more than a decade.

SoftBank has committed $64.6 billion to OpenAI and was expected to hold roughly 13% of the company by the week of 28 September, The American Bazaar reported on 24 September. The publication said SoftBank’s finances would be at risk if OpenAI’s appeal in the market weakened.

The company had also obtained a $10 billion loan earlier in 2026 backed by its OpenAI stake. Bloomberg-compiled data put its note sales across currencies at almost US$15 billion so far that year, making it the biggest junk-rated borrower in bond markets at the time, the Taipei Times reported on 22 September.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman had said the company would not go public in 2026. A listing would increase the liquidity of SoftBank’s investment, a prospect investors had been watching, according to the Taipei Times.

SoftBank’s BB+ rating sets it apart

S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings both rate SoftBank BB+, their highest speculative-grade classification. Alphabet and Amazon, identified as the two biggest corporate bond sellers of 2026, carry AA+ and AA ratings respectively, the Taipei Times reported. Their higher ratings place those borrowers in a different credit category from SoftBank.

Satoru Aoyama, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, said he was “positively surprised by the market appetite”. He contrasted SoftBank’s sale with debt raised by highly rated US hyperscalers, saying AI-related borrowing had reached the high-yield market at scale.

Bond sales by hyperscalers had more than doubled in 2026 to over $200 billion, according to LSEG data cited by The American Bazaar. SoftBank’s own financing drew a more immediate response in Tokyo: its shares rose more than 7% when Japanese trading resumed after a three-day holiday and the bond announcement.

Citigroup was lead bookrunner and a joint global coordinator for the dollar notes, alongside Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. JPMorgan was lead bookrunner for the euro notes and a joint global coordinator with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, according to the Taipei Times.