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SoftBank Launches $10 Billion and €1 Billion of Notes to Fund OpenAI's Third Tranche
The multi-currency bond sale replaces a $10 billion bridge loan and is expected to price September 24, locking in permanent financing for the October 1 payment.
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Sources
Sources: Reuters wire (Kane Wu; term sheet seen by Reuters; additional reporting by Makiko Yazamaki in Tokyo), September 21, 2026, via live verbatim syndicated copy (reuters.com currently HTTP 401); SoftBank Group Corp. press release "Execution of Follow-on Investment (Second Tranche) in OpenAI," July 1, 2026.
Deal terms per a term sheet seen by Reuters, reported September 21, 2026; tranche schedule per SoftBank's July 1, 2026 disclosure. All dates 2026.
SoftBank Group Corp has launched $10 billion of dollar-denominated and €1 billion of euro-denominated senior unsecured notes to fund its investment in OpenAI, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.
The dollar notes are split into 3-1/2-year, 5-1/2-year and 7-1/2-year tenors, while the euro bonds come in 4-year and 6-year tenors, per the term sheet. Citigroup and JPMorgan are lead bookrunners. The issues are expected to price on September 24 and settle on September 29.
Proceeds will fund SoftBank's $10 billion payment for the third tranche of its follow-on investment in OpenAI, expected to close on October 1, with the remainder available for general corporate purposes, the term sheet said. The bond sale is set to cancel a $10 billion bridge loan facility SoftBank had arranged for the OpenAI investment — swapping short-term acquisition financing for multi-year unsecured debt.
The third tranche completes a $30 billion follow-on commitment SoftBank announced on February 27. The second $10 billion tranche was executed on July 1 through SoftBank Vision Fund 2 into OpenAI Group PBC; that same day SoftBank drew $10 billion under a bridge facility agreement it had signed on March 27. The October 1 closing date could be accelerated if OpenAI Group PBC lists its shares publicly.
For investors, the structure is the story. SoftBank is giving its OpenAI bet permanent-capital treatment — terming out bridge debt across five tenors and two currencies rather than rolling it — and the pricing on September 24 will show what the market charges for AI-concentration risk on a Japanese conglomerate's balance sheet. It is also a measure of the AI capital cycle's scale: frontier-model funding rounds are now large enough to register in the investment-grade bond market.
SoftBank could not be reached for comment because of a holiday in Japan. The term sheet itself is not public, so every deal term here rests on Reuters' sighting of it; the official record so far is SoftBank's July 1 disclosure of the tranche schedule. Watch pricing on September 24 and the October 1 close.
SoftBank's giant bond sale, in plain English
SoftBank is borrowing a huge amount of money — $10 billion in dollars plus €1 billion in euros — by selling bonds to investors. The money pays for its next $10 billion installment in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Instead of keeping a short-term $10 billion loan, SoftBank is replacing it with longer-term bonds that come due in 3½ to 7½ years. The bonds are expected to be priced on September 24, which will show how much extra interest investors want for lending to a company making such a concentrated bet on AI.
Reading the term sheet
Read this as SoftBank terming out event risk: five tenors across two currencies converts a $10 billion bridge — drawn July 1 under the March 27 facility — into permanent capital ahead of the October 1 third-tranche close. The structure completes the $30 billion follow-on announced February 27. What matters now is pricing: the September 24 book will price AI-concentration risk on a Japanese conglomerate balance sheet in size, and the clearing levels become the reference point for every frontier-model financing that follows. Watch for tenor-by-tenor demand skew — the 3½-year versus 7½-year spread says how far investors will reach for SoftBank duration.
Not yet known
The coupons and final pricing on the five tranches (set September 24), and whether the October 1 close is accelerated by a public listing of OpenAI Group PBC shares.
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