SoftBank lowers OpenAI-backed loan target to $6B as lenders fail to scale

SoftBank has cut its OpenAI-backed margin loan from $10 billion to about $6 billion after banks and private equity funds delayed structuring the deal and struggled to value OpenAI, an unlisted AI unicorn.

SoftBank Group is shelving an ambitious financing plan that would have raised nearly $10 billion using its OpenAI shares as collateral, after lenders disagreed with both the loan structure and the secret value backing the deal.

According to Bloomberg, cited by Reuters and other outlets, SoftBank and its arrangement banks received a reduced target of “less than $6 billion” in recent talks with prospective lenders, which would mean a 40% reduction in the initial size. US News reported that the first pitch “investors are concerned about the difficulty of accessing the value of an unlisted company such as ChatGPT maker OpenAI.”

Lenders are questioning OpenAI’s privacy policy and structure

An April Bloomberg report on the deal said SoftBank was seeking “a $10 billion loan secured by its OpenAI shares,” structured as a two-year loan with an option to extend for another year. Bloomberg said the facility would allow the Japanese conglomerate to “take on more debt for its push into AI” without selling its OpenAI stake.

In essence, the instruments are straightforward but risky: SoftBank is borrowing against its OpenAI equity, and if the value of that collateral falls, the lenders can demand more margin or take the shares. The sticking point, lenders now say, is how to call that collateral. As the Economic Times summarized in a Bloomberg report, “some creditors have expressed concerns about how to value OpenAI, a privately held company,” which has missed internal sales and user events in recent quarters. A separate division of the Chinese platform Futu noted that “the root of the issue lies in the inability of lenders to determine the right amount” of OpenAI, calling the loan negotiations a “big setback” for SoftBank’s AI strategy to increase power.

Those concerns are placed on top of SoftBank’s already large AI investment stack. In March, Bloomberg reported that SoftBank had secured a $40 billion bridge loan to finance its OpenAI investment and general business needs, a deal sponsored by the global banking group and now being sold to other lenders. Bloomberg said institutions such as HSBC, BNP Paribas and Intesa Sanpaolo are joining as underwriters, each asking to commit about $5 billion. Reuters, summarizing the same report, added that SoftBank is “pursuing about $40 billion” to back its OpenAI bet. Yahoo Finance echoed that number, emphasizing how much power is already tied to AI trading.

What limited lending means behind SoftBank’s AI push

The margin loan was intended to be another pillar in that structure: by borrowing OpenAI shares instead of selling them, SoftBank can raise money to expand its AI investments — likely infrastructure projects like the “Stargate” data center program — while keeping upside if OpenAI’s valuation continues to rise. TechFundingNews noted that the $10 billion loan was “just one part of SoftBank’s larger AI financing plan,” which reportedly includes more than $60 billion in commitments to OpenAI and related projects through Vision Fund 2, a $40 billion bridge loan and other resources.

Reducing the loan target to around $6 billion doesn’t end that strategy, but it does show that borrowers’ appetite for concentrated, cryptocurrencies risk is not limited, even in an AI-saturated market. As Bloomberg put it in a previous episode of the $40 billion bridge, OpenAI’s exposure is already “one of the biggest tests yet of creditors’ sentiments about advancing Japanese corporate debt to artificial intelligence.”

The latest layoffs suggest that, for now, banks and funds are willing to support SoftBank’s AI ambitions — but only until they can convince their risk committees that the collateral they’re lending to can be valued beyond the vibes and whispers of the secondary market.