The Japanese investment company had originally aimed to secure a $10 billion margin loan backed by its OpenAI holdings.

However, discussions with banks and other potential lenders have recently shifted towards a smaller deal that could fall to about $6 billion, according to people familiar with the talks.

The loan is still under discussion and the final size could still change.

Lenders reportedly became cautious because OpenAI is privately owned, making it harder to determine a stable market value for the company.

Although OpenAI was recently valued at around $852 billion in a funding round earlier this year, creditors are wary about using unlisted shares as collateral for such a large borrowing arrangement.

A margin loan allows investors to borrow money against the value of assets they already own. In this case, SoftBank planned to use its OpenAI stake to secure the financing.

The proposed loan would run for two years, with an option to extend it by another year. Reports earlier this year also said the borrowing could carry an interest rate tied to SOFR plus 425 basis points, pushing costs close to 8%.

That is significantly higher than standard corporate lending rates and reflects the risks lenders see in the structure.

SoftBank has increased its financial exposure to OpenAI over the past two years. The company first invested in the ChatGPT maker in September 2024 and later expanded the partnership through Stargate, a large artificial intelligence infrastructure project launched in the United States in January 2025.

In March this year, SoftBank also secured a separate $40 billion bridge loan backed by major banks including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.

The company said the funding would support OpenAI investments and broader corporate operations.

Analysts estimate SoftBank’s total investment commitment to OpenAI could eventually reach about $64.6 billion, giving the group roughly a 13% in the company.

At the same time, some analysts believe SoftBank faces a financing gap of around $32 billion over the next two years.

To raise cash, the company has already sold several major assets. In 2025, SoftBank exited its Nvidia position for about $5.8 billion and also sold T-Mobile shares valued at roughly $12.7 billion.

Credit rating agency S&P recently revised SoftBank’s outlook to negative while keeping its BB+ rating, pointing to the company’s debt exposure and aggressive borrowing strategy.

Neither SoftBank nor OpenAI immediately responded to requests for comment following the latest reports on the loan discussions.

The company, led by Masayoshi Son, is strengthening its focus on artificial intelligence as competition increases among global tech firms.

This is SoftBank’s largest borrowing in US dollars. The loan is unsecured and will mature in March 2027. It was arranged by major lenders including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and MUFG Bank.

SoftBank said the funds will partly support its existing commitment to OpenAI. The group had earlier agreed to invest $30 billion in the company through its Vision Fund 2. Some of the loan will also go towards general operations, with plans to repay part of it through asset sales.

After years of mixed results from large bets on companies like Uber and WeWork, Son is now focusing heavily on AI.

OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, has become one of the most influential players in the sector following the rapid adoption of ChatGPT. That surge has drawn fresh capital into the industry and raised the stakes for investors.

SoftBank is also working with OpenAI on the Stargate Project, an initiative announced in 2025 to invest up to $500 billion over four years in AI infrastructure in the United States.

Earlier, in December 2024, Son and then President-elect Donald Trump said SoftBank would invest $100 billion in AI and related infrastructure in the US over the same period.

The scale of this new loan shows how far SoftBank is willing to go. Even with a heavy debt load, the group is placing itself at the centre of the global AI growth, where companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon are all expanding their chances.

The Japanese tech conglomerate posted a ¥421.8 billion ($2.87 billion) net profit for Q1 2025, marking its second consecutive profitable quarter and a complete turnaround from the ¥174 billion loss in the same period last year. 

This resurgence, led by a $4.8 billion rise in Vision Fund asset value, comes as SoftBank steps up its investment in AI with massive bets across sectors and continents.

Much of this is pinned to SoftBank’s portfolio moves, currently leading a $40 billion investment round for OpenAI, with ¥22.5 billion of that coming from its own balance sheet. 

It’s also behind the $500 billion Stargate infrastructure initiative in the United States, an AI-focused data centre project involving Oracle, OpenAI, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX.

But while the vision is commendable, execution is proving to be more complicated.

The Stargate project, despite its headline-grabbing scale, has yet to break ground. CFO Yoshimitsu Goto conceded that the initiative is “bogging down” due to friction among partners and unresolved site selection issues. 

Discussions are now underway to scale down the scope, with a more modest data centre in Ohio being considered for launch before the year ends.

In the meantime, SoftBank has strengthened its positioning in AI hardware. The firm has recently upped its stake in Nvidia to over $3 billion, benefitting from the chipmaker’s 46% rally in Q2. 

The increased exposure to high-performing public tech firms such as Coupang, Grab, Symbotic, and Swiggy has also helped lift the valuation of Vision Fund assets.

SoftBank’s share price ended Friday at 13,865 yen, up 10.39% after hitting a peak of ¥14,205 in early trading. That rise made it the single largest contributor to gains on Japan’s Topix index, which crossed the 3,000-point milestone for the first time ever and closed at 3,024.

For investors, this sudden rally has brought rare relief. For over a year, SoftBank stock has traded at a stubborn 50% discount to the value of its underlying assets. Now, its loan-to-value ratio has dropped to 17% from 18% in March, signalling an improvement in financial stability.

Paul Golding, an analyst at Macquarie, remarked, “The results were evidence of SoftBank’s quality diversified portfolio, strong underlying fundamentals, thematic/secular tailwinds for its equity holdings, and the resilience of its balance sheet.”

Seiichi Suzuki, chief equity market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute, said momentum played a role in Friday’s share spike. “Active investors scooped up SoftBank Group shares to beat the Topix’s gain. When the main indexes rise, they need to buy heavyweights that are rising. SoftBank’s strong earnings and the Topix’s gains came at the same time.”

Yet even with the positive numbers, questions remain. SoftBank’s recent history of erratic investment outcomes and failed tech bets, most notably WeWork, still looms large. Whether this renewed AI strategy can avoid past pitfalls is something only time and execution will reveal.

The project is part of the Stargate initiative, a $500 billion plan to deliver 10GW of data centre capacity over four years. 

This latest phase will increase Stargate’s total planned capacity to over 5GW, which OpenAI says will power more than 2 million chips, primarily Nvidia GB200s. The company stated: “We now expect to exceed our initial commitment thanks to strong momentum with partners including Oracle and SoftBank.”

Interestingly, OpenAI isn’t building the data centres itself. Instead, it has signed a $30 billion multi-year leasing agreement with Oracle, which will own and operate the infrastructure. 

Oracle will supply and manage the hardware, while OpenAI focuses on AI model development and deployment. This is a transition from earlier plans that saw SoftBank involved more directly in construction efforts.

In practical terms, the 4.5GW expansion represents about 25% of total operational data centre capacity in the U.S., noting the sheer scale of the Stargate project. The first site, Stargate I in Abilene, Texas, is already partially live, with Nvidia racks installed and initial workloads running.

But the Abilene site has also led to environmental concerns. Its $500 million natural gas plant, built to power the facility, has been objected due to pollution risks and potential health hazards to nearby communities.

On the political aspect, Stargate enjoys direct backing from the U.S. government. Former President Donald Trump unveiled the project at the White House in January 2025 as part of efforts to outpace China in AI development. To accelerate progress, the White House declared a national energy emergency earlier this year, fast-tracking permits for fossil fuel and nuclear plants to support high-energy AI campuses.

Despite the high-profile nature of the project, only $50 billion of the promised $500 billion investment has been raised so far. Immediate deployment of $100 billion has reportedly stalled. Internal disputes between OpenAI and SoftBank over site locations and governance have also emerged, leading to a scaled-down plan to build a smaller data centre in Ohio by the end of 2025.

In January, xAI owner Elon Musk dismissed the venture, stating: “They don’t actually have the money.”

Again, SoftBank and OpenAI are said to be pursuing different visions for Stargate, slowing progress. While OpenAI’s partnership with Oracle accelerates construction, its collaboration with SoftBank has shifted towards site assessments and infrastructure design innovations.

Beyond Stargate, OpenAI continues to diversify its infrastructure partnerships, working with CoreWeave, Crusoe, Cisco, and G42 in the UAE. Its new ‘OpenAI for Countries’ initiative is also helping governments build sovereign AI infrastructure and establish national AI investment funds.

For now, OpenAI predicts the construction and operation of the new 4.5GW capacity will generate over 100,000 jobs across construction and operations in the U.S. alone. Many of these roles, the company says, will be filled by skilled tradespeople, including electricians, equipment operators, and technicians, from over 20 states.

Nonetheless, funding is a concern as timelines are slipping, and internal disagreements could yet derail the project’s long-term goals. 

At the centre of the talks is how much equity Microsoft will retain after pumping over $13 billion into the company.

According to reports, Microsoft is ready to give up a portion of its stake in exchange for something more valuable, ongoing access to OpenAI’s future AI models beyond the current 2030 agreement. This shows a change in priorities. Microsoft appears to want long-term technological leverage rather than a dominant equity position.

The Financial Times, quoting people familiar with the matter, notes that the original 2019 contract that kicked off Microsoft’s involvement is being reworked entirely. Back then, the software giant had put in $1 billion, laying the foundation for what became a major player in global AI development. 

Now, OpenAI is on the brink of a more aggressive commercial path, but with a twist—it still wants to preserve control under its nonprofit board, even as it converts its business arm into a public benefit corporation (PBC).

That’s a sticking point.

Microsoft reportedly needs to sign off on the restructuring, and sources say it’s not an easy sell. The deal has been made harder by growing friction between the two companies. What began as a strategic alliance is now more of a competitive coexistence.

OpenAI’s enterprise goals are expanding. Its massive Stargate AI infrastructure project, planned in partnership with SoftBank and Oracle and valued at up to $500 billion, is one example that seems to be pushing Microsoft into a more defensive posture.

Some within Microsoft are not hiding their displeasure. “Arrogant” is the word reportedly used to describe OpenAI’s recent conduct. That issue is being aggravated by regulatory oversight. Authorities in California and Delaware are watching the restructuring closely, and investor demands are increasing.

Just last week, The Information revealed that OpenAI told some investors it would be cutting back on how much of its revenue it shares with Microsoft as part of the restructuring. That adjustment appears to favour future returns to new investors over existing ones, putting Microsoft, once its largest backer, in a more uncertain position.

Both firms have refused to comment publicly on the negotiations. Silence, however, isn’t unusual at this stage, especially when valuations are in play and IPO ambitions in the background.

In January, Microsoft had already started changing direction. It revised some of its OpenAI deal terms shortly after entering a separate venture with Oracle and SoftBank to build next-generation AI data centres in the U.S. That was seen by analysts as a sign that Microsoft was preparing for a less central role in OpenAI’s future ecosystem.

Now, OpenAI is pressured on all sides. It raised $40 billion in new capital from backers like SoftBank, is under increased regulatory investigation, and still has to navigate Elon Musk’s objection of its drift towards commercialisation.

OpenAI wants to keep its nonprofit DNA intact. Microsoft wants reliable access to top-tier AI models. 

With a budget of $500 billion over the next four years, the project aims to enhance computing capacity, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and strengthen national security. 

An initial $100 billion will be deployed immediately, starting with a flagship data centre project in Texas.

SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners, with SoftBank handling financial responsibilities and OpenAI overseeing operations. 

Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s CEO, has been named chairman of Stargate, with major stakeholders including MGX, NVIDIA, Arm, and Microsoft. Speaking about the scale of the project, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said, “Each building is a half a million square feet. There are 10 buildings currently being built.”

The Stargate initiative has already begun construction in Texas, marking the launch of its first data centre, which will eventually expand to other states. These facilities will include cutting-edge AI computing systems developed collaboratively by OpenAI, NVIDIA, and Oracle. 

The partners have also announced plans to scale up to 20 data centre installations by 2029, evaluating additional sites across the country to accommodate future expansion. Reports reveal that these data centres will include innovative AI chips designed by OpenAI, with semiconductor giants Broadcom and TSMC involved in chip production.

A Network of Collaborations

The project builds on longstanding partnerships. OpenAI and NVIDIA have collaborated since 2016, while OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft has grown through its extensive use of Microsoft Azure for AI model training. Oracle’s existing agreements to supply AI computing resources also strengthen its role in the venture.

SoftBank’s deep involvement in OpenAI predates this project as the company previously committed $500 million to OpenAI’s funding round and an additional $1.5 billion to facilitate a tender offer for its employees. Again, Middle East AI fund MGX, which has invested in OpenAI, will also be leveraged in Stargate.

While the Stargate Project has good prospects, issues about environmental and social impacts haven’t been ignored. Data centres, known for their heavy water usage and high energy consumption, could stress resources in regions with limited infrastructure. Issues about the long-term job creation promised by similar large-scale projects have also been raised.

Nonetheless, experts like Goldman Sachs projects that AI-related data centre demand will account for nearly 19% of total power consumption by 2028, noting the sector’s quick expansion. A McKinsey report forecasts that spending on data centre infrastructure could exceed $250 billion within the next five years.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has called for fewer regulatory limitations to accelerate the development of critical infrastructure projects in the United States. Highlighting challenges in an interview, Altman said, “The thing I really deeply agree with [President Trump] on is, it is wild how difficult it has become to build things in the United States… Power plants, data centres, any of that kind of stuff. I understand how bureaucratic cruft builds up, but it’s not helpful to the country in general.”

Nonetheless, the Stargate Project has garnered support from stakeholders and government officials. Hence, with a focus on re-industrialisation and innovation, the initiative is expected to bolster AI infrastructure and boost the United States’ innovation in global AI leverage.