SoftBank Eyes Record $40B Loan to Fund OpenAI Bet

SoftBank is going all-in on OpenAI — and it needs a mountain of cash to do it.

The Japanese investment giant is pursuing a bridge loan of up to $40 billion, according to Bloomberg sources. That would make it SoftBank's largest-ever borrowing denominated solely in US dollars.

The bulk of the funds would go toward financing SoftBank's investment in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and one of the most valuable private tech firms on the planet.

A $40 billion loan is staggering by any measure. It signals just how aggressively SoftBank is positioning itself in the AI race, willing to take on historic levels of debt to secure its stake.

The move underscores the sheer scale of capital now flowing into artificial intelligence — and the massive financial bets required to stay in the game.