SoftBank Group has reopened discussions with a consortium of lenders for a $10 billion loan backed by its stake in OpenAI, after earlier attempts to secure the financing stalled over concerns about the difficulty of valuing private companies, according to two people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters.
To address lender hesitation, the Japanese technology investor is now offering to guarantee repayment of the loan, giving banks recourse to SoftBank itself if the OpenAI shares pledged as collateral lose value, the people said. The lending consortium is expected to include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Mizuho Financial Group.
The funding forms part of SoftBank’s broader efforts to finance its ambitious artificial intelligence investment strategy. The financing, structured as a margin loan, functions like a line of credit against the value of the pledged shares.
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 20 (June 8 – Sept 5, 2026).
Register for Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
Initially, SoftBank had sought a loan backed solely by its OpenAI stake, but banks pushed back because they would have had no claim on SoftBank beyond the collateral if the shares declined in value. Under that earlier structure, SoftBank would not have been obligated to repay the debt if the collateral proved insufficient.
The revived talks highlight lenders’ increased caution toward loans backed by stakes in privately held companies, whose valuations are harder to assess and whose shares are more difficult to sell than publicly traded stock. Reuters was unable to determine whether lenders have specific concerns about OpenAI’s valuation. Valuations of major AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have ballooned in recent years amid intensifying competition for leadership in the field.
Financing an AI Bet of Historic Scale
SoftBank has become one of the world’s biggest backers of OpenAI under founder Masayoshi Son’s push to position the Japanese conglomerate as a dominant investor in artificial intelligence. It has committed more than $60 billion to OpenAI and related AI infrastructure projects, including the Stargate data center venture announced alongside OpenAI and Oracle last year.
The company has relied heavily on debt and asset-backed financing to fund these investments. In recent months, SoftBank has explored several financing options tied to its investment portfolio. Last year, it sought to raise a $5 billion margin loan backed by shares in chip designer Arm Holdings, whose stock has surged amid investor enthusiasm for AI. Unlike the OpenAI financing, the Arm loan was backed by shares in a publicly traded company, making the collateral easier for lenders to value and liquidate if necessary.
SoftBank had previously sought to raise at least $10 billion through a margin loan backed by its OpenAI stake before reducing the target to about $6 billion after encountering hesitation from lenders, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
OpenAI confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering in June, which could ultimately make SoftBank’s stake easier for lenders to value and eventually liquidate. The company also faces a March 2027 deadline to repay a $40 billion bridge loan that helped finance its OpenAI investment. SoftBank has said that borrowing would likely be repaid “through the utilization of existing assets and other financing measures.”
Son has accelerated the company’s spending on AI this year, making investments spanning data centers, semiconductors, and robotics as he seeks to position SoftBank at the center of the industry’s rapid expansion.
Lenders’ Caution Grows
The difficulty in securing the loan underscores a broader trend in financing, where lenders are becoming more selective when it comes to private company collateral. Valuations of private tech firms can be opaque and volatile, and liquidity is limited compared to public markets. Against that backdrop, analysts believe that SoftBank is effectively reducing the risk for lenders by offering a personal guarantee, potentially making the deal more attractive.
The involvement of major global banks like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Mizuho is believed to suggest confidence in SoftBank’s overall creditworthiness and the long-term value of its AI investments, despite the challenges of valuing the specific OpenAI stake.
As companies race to build infrastructure and develop new technologies, traditional funding sources are being stretched, leading to innovative financing structures and greater scrutiny from lenders.
However, a successful large-scale loan backed by a private AI stake might encourage similar deals, helping to channel more capital into the sector.
Conversely, if the financing falls through again, it could signal continued caution among banks toward private technology investments.