SoftBank Prices Record $11.1 Billion Junk Bond Sale at Up to 9.75% to Fund Final OpenAI Payment

Since SoftBank's OpenAI commitments climbed toward $65 billion earlier this year, Masayoshi Son's conglomerate has leaned harder and harder on debt markets to close the gap between what it has promised and what it actually has in cash. On Thursday, September 24, that borrowing spree hit a new record.

SoftBank priced $11.1 billion in dollar- and euro-denominated senior notes, according to a term sheet reported by Reuters through WMBD Radio. The deal is the largest high-yield corporate bond sale ever completed globally, surpassing French telecom firm Numericable Group's $10.9 billion offering from 2014, according to LSEG data cited by Business Times Singapore.

What SoftBank Is Paying

The dollar tranche breaks into three pieces: $1 billion at 3.5 years yielding 8.625%, $4.5 billion at 5.5 years yielding 9.25%, and $4.5 billion at 7.5 years yielding 9.75%, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by the Japan Times. The euro portion adds two €500 million tranches, at 7.125% for four years and 8% for six years.

Those numbers dwarf what SoftBank paid last time it did a comparable deal. A $7.3 billion dollar-and-euro bond sale in June 2021 carried yields between just 2.125% and 5.25%, according to Business Times Singapore. SoftBank is now paying nearly double, in some tranches close to quadruple, what it paid five years ago to borrow the same kind of money.

Fitch Ratings assigned the notes a BB+ rating, junk territory, and Fitch senior director Satoru Aoyama told Business Times Singapore he was "positively surprised by the market appetite," noting that AI-driven debt issuance has now reached the high-yield market at scale, not just among highly-rated hyperscalers.

Where the Money Is Going

The proceeds fund SoftBank's $10 billion payment for the third and final tranche of its follow-on OpenAI investment, expected to close October 1, according to the term sheet reported by WMBD Radio. That payment brings SoftBank's cumulative commitment to OpenAI to $64.6 billion for roughly a 13% stake, according to Business Times Singapore and CNBC. The new bonds also retire a $10 billion bridge loan SoftBank had used to hold the position open, per the term sheet.

SoftBank isn't stopping at OpenAI. The company is separately acquiring ABB's robotics business for $5.4 billion and DigitalBridge for $3.1 billion, according to Business Times Singapore. Apollo Global Management is in talks to expand its loan to SoftBank's Vision Fund II from $5.4 billion to as much as $9 billion, per a Benzinga report cited by Traders Agency, and a SoftBank executive said on the company's earnings call that its OpenAI holdings could be pledged as collateral, including through a margin loan.

Signs Investors Are Getting Nervous

Orders for the dollar portion topped $30 billion against a $10 billion target, according to people familiar with the deal cited by Business Times Singapore, letting SoftBank shave its initial pricing down. Strong demand is real. But so is the price of admission: the cost to insure SoftBank's debt against default over five years rose this month to its highest level since April 2025, when the company first disclosed its $30 billion OpenAI stake, according to the Japan Times.

SoftBank has now issued $14.6 billion in high-yield bonds in 2026 alone, making up 63.4% of the entire Asia Pacific high-yield corporate bond market, according to Business Times Singapore. That follows a separate 1 trillion yen ($6.3 billion) retail bond sale earlier this month. Global AI-related debt issuance has topped $575 billion in 2026, according to a Goldman Sachs Group report cited by the Japan Times, and some credit strategists worry the pile of borrowing could produce a market hangover if AI spending doesn't generate the returns companies are promising.

Fitch itself flagged that SoftBank's debt will keep rising as it funds committed investments, even while saying the company should retain adequate liquidity and market access. Son has downplayed the worry, telling investors earlier this year he expects the AI industry to keep expanding regardless of near-term volatility.

Reports diverged on how markets read the news. CNBC reported SoftBank's Tokyo-listed shares jumped more than 7% Thursday as Japanese markets reopened after a three-day holiday. Free Malaysia Today reported the same shares closed up just 0.6% that day. Both accounts agree Tokyo was closed Monday through Wednesday for holidays; the two percentage figures were not reconciled in available reporting.

SoftBank's hoped-for cash infusion from public listings of its OpenAI stake and its SB Energy data-center subsidiary has also been pushed back, with both IPOs delayed from plans that had targeted launches as early as this month, according to Business Times Singapore. The bonds settle September 29, and the $10 billion OpenAI payment is due October 1. Whether that closes the funding gap for good, or just buys SoftBank another quarter before it has to go back to the debt markets again, is the open question bondholders are now being paid nearly 10% a year to wait and find out.