SoftBank Group announced plans for a $6.3 billion retail bond offering, the largest ever by a Japanese company, with proceeds earmarked for artificial intelligence investments and debt refinancing.
The seven-year bonds are expected to carry a coupon between 4.3% and 4.9%, according to Bloomberg filings. SoftBank's cumulative investments and commitments to OpenAI are expected to exceed $60 billion as the company pursues what it describes as a broader AI infrastructure strategy.
SoftBank has committed to OpenAI funding through multiple channels over the past two years, building on its existing stakes in the startup and its broader Vision Fund portfolio. The $60 billion figure encompasses both direct equity positions and financial commitments made across various financing structures.
To support the capital raise, SoftBank has adjusted its asset holdings. The company sold its entire NVIDIA stake and increased financing backed by its Arm Holdings equity, moves designed to unlock liquidity for the AI push. The NVIDIA sale, which generated $5.83 billion and occurred in October 2025, was part of a broader portfolio rebalancing that preceded this bond announcement.
Japan's retail bond market has historically attracted domestic savers seeking yield in a low-rate environment. A $6.3 billion offering to a single Japanese issuer would dwarf prior precedents in the retail channel, where most offerings for major corporations have ranged in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The coupon range reflects current market conditions for investment-grade corporate debt from a major financial conglomerate.
SoftBank's AI commitments have grown as the company positions itself as infrastructure capital for the sector. The Vision Fund has deployed capital across semiconductor, data center, and AI software companies, with OpenAI becoming a focal point of the strategy. Other Japanese investors have made selective AI bets, but SoftBank's $60 billion-plus commitment to OpenAI alone is without precedent among publicly traded Japanese firms.
If completed at the announced terms, the offering would rank among the largest corporate bond issuances globally in 2026 and would represent a significant refinancing event for Japanese credit markets.
