SoftBank Group has raised $11.1 billion in the largest high-yield corporate bond sale globally on record to fund its investments in OpenAI and other artificial intelligence-related companies and infrastructure, Reuters reported.
Founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son is aiming to establish SoftBank as the world’s leading AI platform with investments across the semiconductor supply chain, data centres, large language model development and robotics.
SoftBank first invested $500 million in the ChatGPT maker in 2024 but soon increased its stake, putting in around $30 billion more in 2025 and committing to a further $30 billion in 2026, the final tranche of which is due to close next week. The investments will bring SoftBank’s holding to around 13% of OpenAI’s equity. In 2025 Son said he was “all in” on the firm.
As of the end of June, OpenAI’s rising valuation in private fundraising rounds had generated $45 billion in unrealised gains for SoftBank, though it has delayed plans for a public listing, holding up SoftBank’s prospects of realising its gains and testing OpenAI in the public markets.
SoftBank said it would acquire digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge in December 2025 in a deal valued at $4 billion. The firm invests in digital infrastructure sectors like data centres, cell towers, fibre networks, small-cell systems and edge infrastructure and is among the investors in the Stargate data centre development scheme.
