SoftBank revives $10 billion loan talks backed by OpenAI stake

SoftBank Group has reopened talks for a $10 billion loan tied to its OpenAI stake, and is now offering lenders a repayment guarantee to break a stalemate over valuation. The new structure would give banks recourse to SoftBank if the shares pledged as collateral lose value, a notable concession from the earlier plan to rely on OpenAI stock alone.

The deal under discussion is a margin loan, a borrowing structure secured by assets. SoftBank first floated the idea in late April as a two-year loan with an option to extend for another year, but lenders pushed back over the difficulty of pricing a private company that sits at the center of the collateral package. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Mizuho Financial Group have been discussed as possible members of the lending group.

The financing is only one piece of SoftBank’s larger bet on artificial intelligence. On February 27, SoftBank said it had agreed to make an additional $30 billion investment in OpenAI through SoftBank Vision Fund 2, split into three $10 billion tranches scheduled for April 1, July 1 and October 1. SoftBank said that after the follow-on deal, its cumulative investment in OpenAI would reach $64.6 billion, equal to about a 13% ownership interest, after $34.6 billion already invested since September 2024. The company valued OpenAI at $730 billion pre-money in that agreement, and OpenAI later closed a funding round on March 31 at an $852 billion post-money valuation.

SoftBank separately arranged a $40 billion bridge loan on March 27 to help fund the OpenAI follow-on investment and cover general corporate purposes. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and MUFG Bank were among the arrangers, with additional banks later joining as sub-underwriters. SoftBank has said the main repayment path for that bridge facility is an eventual OpenAI public offering.

The added protection now being sought for the $10 billion margin loan shows how much caution still surrounds SoftBank’s AI financing strategy. S&P Global Ratings revised SoftBank’s credit outlook to negative in March after the company’s enlarged OpenAI commitment, while SoftBank’s shares have climbed about 70% this year on AI enthusiasm. At the end of 2025, SoftBank had about 16.3 trillion yen, or roughly $104 billion, in standalone interest-bearing debt, and S&P estimated OpenAI could account for about 30% of SoftBank’s investment portfolio after the additional investment. The new guarantee shifts more risk onto SoftBank just as its dependence on private AI valuations deepens.