SoftBank lands $11.9B bank loan to keep funding OpenAI
TechStartups, citing Bloomberg and The Japan Times, says SoftBank secured about $11.87 billion in a two-year loan from about 20 banks, upsized from a $10 billion target, to keep funding OpenAI. Shares still sold off as much as 13% the same day.
SoftBank Group secured about $11.87 billion in a two-year loan from about 20 banks to help finance its OpenAI investment push, TechStartups reported on 14 September 2026. The facility was upsized past an initial roughly $10 billion target after banks oversubscribed.
The story is anonymous "people familiar" reporting via Bloomberg and The Japan Times, summarized by TechStartups, not a SoftBank filing or an OpenAI fundraising announcement.
The new credit sits apart from a $10 billion margin facility already tied to SoftBank's OpenAI stake. SoftBank expects cumulative OpenAI investment to reach about $64.6 billion by October, for roughly 13% ownership. Three months earlier, an attempt to raise at least $6 billion against that stake had stalled amid lender hesitation.
SoftBank said last week it plans to repay the remaining $25.9 billion on a $40 billion bridge loan on 15 September 2026. That repayment is a separate cash event from the new $11.87 billion facility.
The same-day equity tape moved the other way. SoftBank shares dropped as much as 13%, the sharpest decline since late June in that report, after frontier CEOs warned about the pace of advanced model development. Banks still lined up for the credit.
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