According to sources familiar with the matter, SoftBank Group is in advanced negotiations with multiple global banks to secure a new $5 billion loan backed by a portion of its holdings in chip design giant ARM Holdings, as the company seeks funding to increase its investment in OpenAI within this year.
SoftBank's confidence in this substantial financing round largely stems from ARM Holdings' strong performance in capital markets this year. The stock has recorded gains of over 20% year-to-date.
ARM Holdings as a "Cash Machine"
Treating ARM Holdings as a "financial instrument" has become a key method for SoftBank to fuel its AI ambitions.
Prior to this new $5 billion loan, SoftBank had already secured a total of $13.5 billion in margin loans backed by ARM Holdings shares (as of March 2025, with $5 billion remaining unused). The new loan would bring this figure to $18.5 billion.
Even before ARM Holdings' IPO in 2023, SoftBank had already locked in approximately $8 billion through similar mechanisms. Eleven banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, BNP Paribas, and Goldman Sachs Group, provided this loan by linking it to ARM Holdings' IPO mandate.
Additionally, earlier this year, the group raised a massive $15 billion one-year loan to support its AI investments in the United States.
Masayoshi Son's "AI Investment Empire"
Son's appetite extends far beyond this, as he builds a vast investment empire around AI technology. His strategy includes:
Heavy Investment in OpenAI: Committing a total of up to $30 billion.
Acquiring Core Technologies: Spending $5.4 billion to acquire ABB Group's robotics division.
Building Underlying Computing Power: Partnering with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. to advance the "Stargate" project, with total investment potentially reaching $500 billion, aimed at building data centers across the United States.
Positioning in Advanced Manufacturing: Exploring the establishment of a large manufacturing center in the US for producing AI industrial robots.
SoftBank's aggressive strategy reflects the unprecedented capital injection by global tech giants and investors into the AI sector. According to JPMorgan estimates, AI-related debt has surged to $1.2 trillion, becoming the largest component of the investment-grade credit market.
Bloomberg Intelligence analysts also note that considering SoftBank's potential subsequent acquisitions of companies like Ampere and other transactions, its total funding requirements could exceed $30 billion, potentially necessitating more asset sales and asset-backed financing in the future.