STORY: SoftBank Group is reportedly racing to close a $22.5 billion funding commitment to OpenAI by the end of the year.
According to sources, it's through an array of cash-raising schemes, including a sale of some investments.
They added it could tap its undrawn margin loans borrowed against its valuable ownership in chip firm Arm Holdings.
The bet on OpenAI is among the biggest yet by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
The Japanese billionaire wants to improve his firm's position in the race for artificial intelligence.
To come up with the money, Son has already sold SoftBank's entire $5.8 billion stake in AI chip leader Nvidia.
As well as offloading $4.8 billion of its T-Mobile stake, and slashing staff.
Son has slowed other dealmaking at SoftBank's Vision Fund to a crawl.
And two of the sources speaking to Reuters said any deal above $50 million now requires his explicit approval.
SoftBank's push to marshal funds offers a window into the strain faced even by the world's biggest dealmakers.
They're scrambling to finance ambitious AI data center projects worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
SoftBank declined to comment.
It secured a deal to invest in OpenAI at a $300 billion valuation in April.
Since then, the valuation of OpenAI has risen dramatically.
And the company is in talks to raise additional funding from investors, including Amazon.
