AIBRIEF
A reported offshore bond offering would partly repay a $40 billion short term loan SoftBank took out earlier in 2026 to bankroll its AI investment.
SoftBank is in talks with banks for a bond offering of $10 billion to $20 billion, potentially its largest offshore issuance, to help repay a $40 billion bridge loan the group took out earlier this year to finance its OpenAI investment, according to a Bloomberg report.
A bridge loan is short-term debt used to cover immediate financing needs before longer-term funding is arranged. SoftBank is weighing replacing that temporary borrowing with multi-year bonds, which spread repayment over a longer horizon.
At the upper end of the range, the deal would be SoftBank's largest offshore bond transaction and its second such issuance in 2026. The Economic Times, citing the same wire, says SoftBank is exploring a Rule 144A format, its first major 144A in over a decade, alongside a planned ¥1 trillion (about $6.3 billion) Japan retail bond for the following month.
SoftBank's expected OpenAI commitment is roughly $65 billion by October, with debt funding part of the tab, and the new bond would repay the existing bridge loan rather than finance fresh OpenAI drawdowns. SoftBank told Bloomberg it is "evaluating several options" and that no final decision has been made; size, currency mix, and timing remain unsettled. The deal could include USD and euro tranches and could launch as early as September.
Tokyo-listed SoftBank shares rose 2.8% on the report. The group's April 2026 dual-currency issuance set a 10-year USD coupon of 8.5%, a benchmark traders will watch when the new bonds price.