SoftBank Group is scaling back a bold financing maneuver that aimed to raise about $10 billion using its OpenAI stake as collateral. After lenders raised concerns over the structure and the difficulty of pricing privately-held OpenAI, the target has been lowered to roughly $6 billion — a 40% cut.
According to Bloomberg, cited by Reuters and others, SoftBank and its arranging banks have floated a reduced target “as low as $6 billion” in recent discussions with potential lenders. U.S. News reported that the original pitch “had investors concerned about the difficulty of reaching a valuation for an unlisted company like ChatGPT maker OpenAI.” The two-year margin loan, extendable by another year, was intended to fuel SoftBank’s next wave of AI investments without selling down its OpenAI equity.
Lenders balk at private company valuation and deal terms
Bloomberg’s April scoop detailed SoftBank’s plan for “a $10 billion loan secured by its shares in US artificial intelligence giant OpenAI.” The facility would let the Japanese conglomerate “take on more debt for its push into AI” without unloading its OpenAI position. The mechanics: SoftBank borrows against its OpenAI equity; if the collateral value falls, lenders can demand margin calls or seize shares. The sticking point: how to value that collateral. The Economic Times, citing Bloomberg, noted “some creditors expressed concerns over how to value OpenAI, a privately held company,” which has missed some internal sales and user metrics in recent quarters. Chinese platform Futu commented that “the crux is lenders’ inability to determine a reasonable valuation” for OpenAI, calling the loan talks “a major setback” for SoftBank’s AI leverage strategy.
These concerns layer on SoftBank’s already hefty AI financing stack. In March, Bloomberg reported SoftBank secured a $40 billion bridge loan to fund its OpenAI investment and general corporate needs, backed by a syndicate of global banks now being syndicated to more lenders. Institutions including HSBC, BNP Paribas and Intesa Sanpaolo joined as sub-underwriters, each committing around $5 billion. Reuters summarized that SoftBank “is pursuing a loan of as much as $40 billion” to support its OpenAI bet. Yahoo Finance echoed that figure, underscoring the leverage already tied to the AI trade.
What the reduced loan means for SoftBank’s AI ambitions
The margin loan was designed as another pillar: borrowing against OpenAI shares rather than selling them allows SoftBank to raise cash for AI expansion — potentially into infrastructure like the “Stargate” data-center initiative — while preserving upside if OpenAI’s valuation climbs. TechFundingNews noted the $10 billion margin loan was “just one part of SoftBank’s larger AI financing plan,” which reportedly includes commitments exceeding $60 billion to OpenAI and related ventures through Vision Fund 2, the $40 billion bridge loan, and other facilities.
Cutting the margin-loan target to $6 billion doesn’t kill the strategy, but it signals that creditor appetite for concentrated, private-equity-collateral risk has limits — even in an AI-obsessed market. As Bloomberg put it earlier, the OpenAI exposure is already “one of the biggest tests yet of creditor sentiment toward the Japanese conglomerate’s debt-fueled push further into artificial intelligence.” The downsizing suggests banks and funds are willing to back SoftBank’s AI ambitions — but only up to the point where they can still convince their own risk committees that the collateral they’re lending against can be valued with something more than vibes and secondary-market whispers.