Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is seeking a loan of up to $40 billion, primarily to finance its deal with OpenAI, according to a Bloomberg report. The bridge loan would hold a roughly 12-month tenor, according to the report. It would involve four lenders, including JP Morgan.
OpenAI had previously said it is raising $110 billion in a massive funding round that would value the company at $840 billion. This funding round includes an investment of $30 billion from SoftBank, $30 billion from Nvidia and $50 billion from Amazon. Talks with banks are ongoing, and terms could change, according to the report.
The size of the loan showcases SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son’s aggressive interest in positioning his company as essential to the AI boom. The $30 billion bet on OpenAI comes in addition to more than $30 billion the company has already invested in the ChatGPT-maker. According to The Japan Times, this is “reminiscent of Son’s early investments in ByteDance or Alibaba Group Holding, but at a far higher price.”
READ: SoftBank, Nvidia to invest in Skild AI at $14 billion valuation (
SoftBank, which held about 11% in OpenAI at the end of December 2025, has unloaded assets including its stake in Nvidia to bankroll its growing bet on OpenAI. The U.S. company now represents one of SoftBank’s biggest holdings, alongside a roughly 90% stake in chip designer Arm Holdings, even as investments elsewhere slow. That is tied to SoftBank’s shares to ChatGPT’s relative performance against Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude.
Market observers have expressed concerns about the scale of SoftBank’s investment amid concerns of an AI bubble. This week, S&P lowered SoftBank’s credit outlook, citing the danger that its investments in OpenAI may hurt the Japanese company’s liquidity and the credit quality of its assets.
READ: SoftBank rushes to close a $22.5 billion funding commitment to OpenAI (
SoftBank has also made smaller investments beyond OpenAI of late. SoftBank and OpenAI have jointly invested $1 billion in SB Energy, an infrastructure company working with tech firms on a U.S. buildout of data centers. The company has also agreed to buy private equity firm DigitalBridge Group for about $3 billion in cash. Last year, it bought U.S. chip designer Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion and proposed a $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB’s robotics unit.
SoftBank is also collaborating with OpenAI for the ambitious Stargate Project to build AI infrastructure.
SoftBank has already increased the amount of its margin loans secured by mobile unit SoftBank Corp. and chip unit Arm.