SoftBank Just Borrowed $11.87 Billion to Keep Betting on OpenAI — While Its Own Stock Cratered 13%
Here's a split that tells you everything about where AI conviction actually lives right now: private capital is still piling in, while public markets are pricing in real risk.
SoftBank Group secured an $11.87 billion two-year loan from roughly 20 banks to keep funding its OpenAI stake — beating its own $10 billion target.
Here's the fuller financing picture:
→ This loan stacks on top of a $10 billion margin loan already taken out against the OpenAI position, plus talks of a bond sale worth up to $20 billion
→ SoftBank is separately repaying the remaining $25.9 billion on a $40 billion bridge loan on September 15
→ The company has said it plans to put nearly $65 billion into OpenAI by October
→ The financing landed the same week SoftBank shares fell as much as 13% — their worst drop since mid-July — right after AI lab chiefs (including OpenAI's own Sam Altman) publicly called for frontier AI development to slow down
That's the contradiction sitting at the center of the AI boom right now: banks are still oversubscribing OpenAI-linked debt, while public investors are punishing the one listed company most exposed to it. Twenty banks looked at SoftBank's OpenAI bet and were comfortable lending nearly $12 billion against it — even as the stock market reacted to safety warnings by selling SoftBank shares that same week.
For anyone watching the AI infrastructure trade, this is worth tracking closely: if SoftBank's cost of capital keeps climbing, it doesn't just affect SoftBank. It affects the timing of follow-on funding, secondary liquidity, and potentially how fast OpenAI itself can move toward any future public listing. The credit terms here are arguably a better leading indicator than the headlines.
Do you think private lenders are seeing something public investors are missing — or is this just leverage catching up with a company that's already all-in?
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