SoftBank secures US$40 billion loan to fund OpenAI investment

SoftBank Group Corp. has secured a US$40 billion bridge loan to support its ongoing investment in US artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, marking one of the largest dollar-denominated borrowings in the Japanese conglomerate's history. The unsecured loan is intended to provide immediate liquidity for SoftBank's commitments to OpenAI as the latter seeks to expand its computing infrastructure and model capabilities. This financial move underscores the massive scale of capital required to compete in the frontier AI space and SoftBank's pivot back toward aggressive technology investment after a period of relative caution.