By Elias Schisgall
SoftBank Group will borrow $40 billion through a bridge facility agreement to fund its $30 billion investment in OpenAI, increasing the Tokyo-based company's debt load as it doubles down on its OpenAI partnership.
SoftBank said it will repay the one-year, non-collateralized loan partly through the sale of existing assets. The agreement lists JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and MUFG Bank as lenders.
SoftBank's borrowings under the facility will help fund its $30 billion follow-on investment in the artificial-intelligence company, which was announced in February as part of a $110 billion funding round.
The company, led by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, has previously relied on borrowing to finance its investments in OpenAI, which totaled $34.6 billion before the most recent funding round. SoftBank took on $27 billion in debt in the last three months of 2025 in part to pay for a $22.5 billion December investment in OpenAI.
The company also sold more than $3.5 billion in shares of T-Mobile and liquidated its stake in Nvidia for $5.8 billion to free up cash for OpenAI during that period.
The OpenAI commitments represent the largest-ever bet by Son, who is known for his unusually high risk appetite, according to The Wall Street Journal. Investors seem to approve of the company's wager, with SoftBank Group's stock nearly doubling over the past year in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
News Corp, owner of the Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.
Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-27-26 1056ET
