SoftBank pledges OpenAI shares for $10 billion loan, Masayoshi Son leverages up on AI bet

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According to Bloomberg, SoftBank is seeking a $10 billion margin loan backed by its OpenAI shares. Even as its credit rating faces downgrades and borrowing costs hit record highs, Masayoshi Son continues to double down on his AI gamble. (Previous coverage: The largest single funding round in history: OpenAI completes $122 billion fundraising, valuation soars past $852 billion) (Background: SoftBank’s $30 Billion OpenAI Bet Spurs S&P Credit Outlook Cut) The report states that the two-year margin loan, which includes a one-year extension option, is being discussed at an initial interest rate of approximately 7.88%, with details yet to be finalized. $10 billion is the size of SoftBank's latest financing, where it is borrowing from banks using its OpenAI shares as collateral. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, noted that this is not the first time Masayoshi Son has taken the margin loan route. As of last November, SoftBank’s margin loans backed by its Arm Holdings shares had expanded to $20 billion. Now, OpenAI shares have been added to this list of collateral. SoftBank’s pace of borrowing over the past year demonstrates the scale and determination of Masayoshi Son’s bet on AI. Bloomberg pointed out that SoftBank just completed a $40 billion loan at the end of March this year, the largest USD-denominated loan facility in its history. One of the purposes was to support additional investments in OpenAI. SoftBank recently committed another $30 billion to OpenAI, bringing its cumulative investment to over $60 billion. Last month, SoftBank also issued a multi-tranche bond, raising $3.6 billion, with a portion used to repay bridge loans related to its OpenAI investment. The 10-year USD portion of this issuance carries a coupon of 8.5%, a record high for the company in this category. From $40 billion to $3.6 billion and now $10 billion, the cost of this continuous leveraging is a steadily climbing financing expense. The capital market is not without concerns regarding this logic. S&P downgraded SoftBank’s credit outlook from "stable" to "negative" in March this year, citing that the massive investment in OpenAI could impair the liquidity and asset credit quality of the Japanese conglomerate. Meanwhile, SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto has admitted that the group’s loan-to-value (LTV) ratio might "temporarily" exceed its self-imposed 25% limit. Nevertheless, Bloomberg reporters noted that there are clear signs in the market that creditors remain willing to continue funding SoftBank’s OpenAI investments, provided the terms are attractive enough. This "provided the terms are attractive enough" is the core of the matter: a 7.88% borrowing cost and record-high coupons represent the market’s premium pricing for this gamble. In addition to its OpenAI stake, Bloomberg reporters pointed out that SoftBank also holds shares in companies such as T-Mobile US, Intel, and ByteDance, which could be sold for cash in the future to serve as a financial buffer. Looking at the timeline, this operation has its own internal logic. SoftBank is borrowing against its OpenAI shares, with the premise that these shares hold sufficiently high market-recognized value. OpenAI just completed the largest single funding round in history at $122 billion, reaching a valuation of $852 billion; using these shares as collateral makes financial sense. Masayoshi Son’s calculation is: while OpenAI has yet to IPO and liquidity remains limited, he can turn paper wealth into cash through share pledging and reinvest it into the next node of his AI empire. The logic chain is clear: keep spending, keep betting, and keep borrowing.

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