Up to $20 billion in high-yield bonds! SoftBank's AI financing spree may be preparing to issue the largest speculative corporate bond in history

The Zhitong Finance App learned that SoftBank Group Corp. (SoftBank Group Corp.) plans to meet with investors in New York next week to test the market's interest in potentially issuing high-yield US dollar bonds. The move marks that the investment agency headed by billionaire Sun Zhengyi is speeding up the pace of financing to support its huge bets on the field of artificial intelligence.

SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto and other executives will have offline discussions with investors at the Citigroup office from September 14 to 17, according to people familiar with the matter. The source added that Citi, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are in charge of arranging this meeting for bond investors who meet US 144A rules and are eligible to buy them. This investor meeting is not linked to the issuance of a specific bond issue.

According to sources last month, SoftBank is considering raising 10 billion to 20 billion US dollars through the high-yield bond market, which may also include a Euro-denominated portion. Barclays Bank strategists pointed out in a report at the beginning of this month that if the bond meets the criteria for inclusion, its issuance may have a significant impact on the US high-yield bond index and is expected to become one of the largest speculative corporate bond issuances in history.

Barclays analyst Roanna Chau wrote in the report: “The key question is no longer whether SoftBank can enter the financing market, but how much it costs and how it will affect existing bondholders.” She pointed out that compared to SoftBank's existing bonds and similar credit types, this issuance may give a “considerable” premium on interest spreads.

SoftBank has invested tens of billions of dollars in artificial intelligence companies. This move has not only boosted the leverage level of its balance sheet, but has also raised concerns that the market is too much exposed to AI-related risks. To support its investment in OpenAI, SoftBank received a $40 billion bridge loan earlier this year and is currently diversifying financing through the debt market to replace short-term burdens with long-term bonds.

Credit analyst Sharon Chen said, “If all projects to be invested are funded by debt, SoftBank's total debt may rise from about US$80 billion in March 2025 to more than US$130 billion.” She pointed out that the company's AI holdings continue to grow, causing “AI stock valuations to drop sharply, or further aggressive investment (especially in OpenAI), which has become a key credit risk point.”

SoftBank priced 1 trillion yen (about 6.5 billion US dollars) of corporate bonds in the Japanese domestic market on September 4, setting a record for the size of a single Japanese corporate bond, mainly aimed at retail investors. For a long time, individual investors in Japan have favored SoftBank bonds because of their high interest rates and the company's strong brand awareness as the owner of professional baseball teams and major mobile operators.

However, the amount of capital raised for Sun Zhengyi's latest investment vision is too large, and SoftBank has to rely more on international fixed income investors. As of October, SoftBank's cumulative investment in OpenAI is expected to be close to $5 billion.

However, unlike many large technology companies that raise money on a large scale from global bond markets, SoftBank's credit qualifications are relatively weak. S&P Global Ratings gave SoftBank a BB+ rating, the highest level in the speculative category. In contrast, the two companies that issued the most corporate bonds in 2026 — Alphabet and Amazon — have AA+ and AA ratings respectively, which are even higher than Japan's sovereign credit rating.