Quick overview

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SoftBank wants a loan of up to $40 billion, its largest-ever loan denominated entirely in dollars, primarily to help finance its investment in US tech giant OpenAI. JPMorgan Chase and Co. is one of four lenders. will be funding the facility, the individuals stated.

The potential loan amount highlights SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son’s aggressive attempt to establish his business as a key player in the global AI boom.

In addition to the more than $30 billion the company has already invested in the startup, which is now the focal point of Son’s goals, the $30 billion wager on OpenAI is a risk reminiscent of his initial investments in ByteDance Ltd. or Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., but at a much greater cost.

Assets, including its ownership of Nvidia Corp., have been sold by the Japanese company, which at the end of December held roughly 11% of OpenAI. to finance its increasing investment in OpenAI. Even as investments elsewhere slow, the US company now constitutes one of SoftBank’s largest holdings, along with a roughly 90% stake in chip designer Arm Holdings Plc. The Japanese company’s stock is linked to how well ChatGPT performs in comparison to Google’s Gemini and Anthropic PBC’s Claude.