SoftBank Bets $11 Billion on AI's Future With Record Junk Bond Sale

A Historic Debt Deal With One Clear Destination

Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group Corp. pushed through one of the largest junk-bond offerings on record, dangling yields above anything it has paid before in an effort to fund its massive AI ambitions. The sheer scale of the move is staggering — and it signals just how far the world's biggest technology investors are willing to go to stake their claim on artificial intelligence.

The company raised roughly $11 billion in debt, spread across dollars and euros, making SoftBank the biggest corporate junk-bond borrower in the world, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Excluding distressed debt exchanges carried out by companies on the brink of default, it is expected to be the largest speculative-grade bond sale ever by a single corporate issuer. That's not a minor footnote — it's a record that rewrites the history of corporate debt markets.

Where the Money Is Going

Proceeds are intended principally to finance a $10 billion payment connected with the third tranche of SoftBank's follow-on investment in OpenAI, expected to close on October 1, with settlement on the bonds expected on September 29. In other words, the company is borrowing at near-record costs, on a tight timeline, to deepen its already enormous bet on the maker of ChatGPT.

SoftBank has been active in debt markets this year to help fund commitments nearing $65 billion to ChatGPT creator OpenAI, as well as more mergers and acquisitions in the sector. Son has downplayed concerns about investments in AI infrastructure, and said earlier this year he expects AI-related industries to account for 20% of global output by 2040, equivalent to $46 trillion. That's the vision driving all of this — a decades-long wager that AI will reshape the global economy in ways that make today's borrowing costs look trivial.

Investors Are Interested — But They Want to Be Paid

As of late afternoon Wednesday in Asia, orders for the $10 billion dollar portion of the deal had exceeded $30 billion, which allowed SoftBank to reduce yields from initial ranges. Demand was clearly there. But enthusiasm came with a price tag. Price discussions for the dollar bonds pointed to yields of 8.75% to 8.875% for shorter-term notes, up to 9.75% to 9.875% for 7½-year debt — levels that, if maintained at pricing, would represent SoftBank's highest yields for dollar securities at those maturities.

This year, SoftBank has issued nearly $15 billion in notes across currencies, making it the biggest junk-rated borrower in global bond markets in 2026, according to compiled data. Recent comments from leaders at major AI platforms, including OpenAI, urging a slowdown on safety grounds have added uncertainty, contributing to the highest cost in three years to insure SoftBank's debt against default. Investors aren't blind to the risks — they're simply demanding higher compensation to absorb them.

A Stress Test for AI's Funding Machine

SoftBank's deal was seen by some as a litmus test for how debt investors are thinking about financing artificial intelligence at a time of rapid developments, as well as increasingly dire warnings about the technology's risks and the need to impose guardrails around its growth. The fact that the deal drew massive demand — even at steep yields — suggests the market still believes in the AI story, at least for now.

SoftBank isn't alone in storming markets for funding, with global AI-related debt issuance already topping $575 billion in 2026, according to a recent report by Goldman Sachs Group credit strategists. Data centers, chips, networking gear, and power systems all require enormous sums, and borrowers across the stack are turning to debt markets to keep pace — and SoftBank's jumbo issue is simply the most visible reminder that the funding chain now reaches deep into junk territory. Whether that chain holds as borrowing costs climb higher will be one of the defining financial questions of the AI era.