SoftBank secures $11.87 billion to keep funding OpenAI even as its stock plunges 13%

SoftBank has secured an $11.87 billion two-year loan from about 20 banks to help finance its massive OpenAI bet, just as investors sent the Japanese conglomerate’s shares down as much as 13%.

The new facility surpassed an initial target of $10 billion, according to people familiar with the deal cited by Bloomberg and The Japan Times. The oversubscription sends a striking signal: banks remain willing to fund SoftBank’s OpenAI exposure at a time when public investors are growing more nervous about how far, and how quickly, the AI race can run.

“SoftBank Group secured an $11.87 billion loan to support its investment in U.S. artificial intelligence firm OpenAI,” The Japan Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

That tension is now sitting at the center of Masayoshi Son’s strategy.

SoftBank has committed tens of billions of dollars to OpenAI and expects its cumulative investment to reach about $64.6 billion by October, giving it roughly 13% of the company. The scale makes OpenAI one of the largest bets in SoftBank’s history and ties an increasing share of the group’s future to the fortunes of a single private AI company.

The news comes just three months after SoftBank’s attempt to raise at least $6 billion against its OpenAI stake stalled amid lender hesitation. The company had initially sought $10 billion before cutting the target as banks wrestled with how to value shares in a private company.

The latest loan is separate from a $10 billion margin facility tied to SoftBank’s OpenAI stake. It comes as the company restructures the financing behind its AI push. SoftBank said last week that it plans to repay the remaining $25.9 billion on a $40 billion bridge loan on September 15.

The group has been using short-term borrowing, asset-backed loans, bond sales, and other financing to fund its AI commitments. It has also discussed selling up to $20 billion of bonds overseas.

Banks are lending. Investors are selling.

That split became hard to ignore on Monday.

SoftBank shares dropped as much as 13%, their sharpest decline since late June, after fresh warnings from top AI executives raised questions about the pace of frontier AI development and the risks surrounding increasingly capable systems.

The selloff came at almost the same moment banks were lining up to provide SoftBank with billions more.

Public markets and credit markets are sending very different signals.

Equity investors are reassessing whether years of AI spending can keep producing returns at the pace already priced into stocks. Lenders, backed by guarantees, collateral, and tighter financing terms, still appear comfortable funding SoftBank’s strategy.

The contrast matters far beyond SoftBank.

Son has turned his company into one of the biggest financial backers of the AI boom. Its ability to keep borrowing affects how much capital it can deploy across OpenAI and the wider AI ecosystem.

The pressure has been building for months. In August, TechStartups reported that SoftBank’s $2 billion investment in Intel generated an $8.2 billion windfall, drawing attention away from its much larger OpenAI exposure. At the time, OpenAI had already become one of the most consequential holdings in SoftBank’s portfolio.

Now the spotlight is back.

SoftBank is still finding lenders willing to finance one of the largest private technology bets ever made. The stock market is asking a different question: what happens if the AI race slows before those bets pay off?