SoftBank Group is heading to Wall Street with hat in hand and a pitch deck full of AI dreams. The Japanese tech conglomerate has scheduled investor meetings at Citigroup’s New York offices from September 14-17 to explore a US dollar junk-bond sale that could range between $10 billion and $20 billion.
The purpose of the offering is straightforward, even if the scale is anything but: SoftBank needs to refinance a $40 billion bridge loan it took out to fund its commitments to OpenAI, where its total expected investment approaches $64.6 billion.
The financing puzzle behind SoftBank’s AI ambitions
SoftBank’s $40 billion bridge loan is set to mature in March 2027, which means the company has roughly six months to find more permanent financing.
SoftBank currently holds a BB+ credit rating from S&P, one notch below investment grade. In the bond world, that label carries real consequences. It means higher borrowing costs, a smaller pool of eligible buyers, and the kind of scrutiny that makes CFOs lose sleep.
SoftBank already got a taste of what junk-rated borrowing looks like in practice. The company completed a $3.6 billion multi-currency bond sale in April 2026, with part of that offering carrying an 8.5% coupon rate.
CFO Yoshimitsu Goto and other SoftBank executives will lead the New York meetings, joined by representatives from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley.
The potential offering may include both dollar and euro tranches, and if launched, it could commence as early as September 2026.
Why SoftBank is all-in on OpenAI
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has become the centerpiece of SoftBank’s AI strategy. With total expected investments approaching $64.6 billion, this isn’t a portfolio allocation. It’s a corporate identity.
SoftBank isn’t limiting itself to the US bond market, either. The company has been exploring diverse funding avenues, including Japanese retail bonds, as it works to piece together the capital needed to support its AI ambitions.
What this means for the high-yield market
A $10 billion to $20 billion junk-bond offering would be one of the largest high-yield issuances in recent memory. To put that in perspective, the entire US high-yield market typically sees total monthly issuance measured in the tens of billions across all companies combined.
An 8.5% coupon, like the one attached to part of the April offering, is the kind of number that gets fixed-income portfolio managers to pick up the phone.
The bridge loan’s March 2027 maturity date creates a natural deadline that reduces SoftBank’s negotiating leverage. Whether SoftBank can secure terms meaningfully better than its April offering’s 8.5% coupon will say a lot about how the market views both the company and the broader AI investment thesis heading into 2027.