{"id":32254,"date":"2026-05-08T13:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/32254\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:06:08","slug":"softbank-scales-back-planned-10-billion-openai-margin-loan-after-lender-pushback-report-softbank-grou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/32254\/","title":{"rendered":"SoftBank Scales Back Planned $10 Billion OpenAI Margin Loan After Lender Pushback: Report &#8211; SoftBank Grou"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"block core-block\">According to a Bloomberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-05-08\/softbank-cuts-target-for-openai-margin-loan-by-40-to-6-billion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">report<\/a> on Friday, the Japanese investment giant and its bankers have discussed reducing the target size of the loan to as low as $6 billion, down from an initial goal of $10 billion. Discussions with potential creditors are ongoing, and the final amount could still change, the report said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">SoftBank and OpenAI did not immediately respond to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Benzinga<\/a>\u2018s requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>SoftBank\u2019s AI Bet Grows<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">The proposed financing would use SoftBank&#8217;s investment in OpenAI as collateral. Some lenders were said to be cautious about assigning a reliable valuation to the ChatGPT maker, given that OpenAI remains unlisted, according to the report. <\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">The two-year margin loan would include an option for SoftBank to extend the term by an additional year, Bloomberg had reported last month. <\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">The development comes as scrutiny grows around the economics of the AI boom and whether massive investments in the sector will translate into profits anytime soon. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has aggressively expanded the group&#8217;s AI exposure, funding billions of dollars in OpenAI investments through debt financing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">The company first invested in OpenAI in September 2024 and later partnered with the startup on Stargate, a large-scale U.S. AI infrastructure initiative announced in January 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">The company recently committed another $30 billion to OpenAI after previously investing more than that amount. In March, SoftBank secured a $40 billion bridge loan \u2014 its largest-ever dollar-denominated borrowing \u2014 partly to fund the latest investment. <\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">In early March, S&amp;P\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spglobal.com\/ratings\/en\/regulatory\/article\/-\/view\/sourceId\/101673310\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">downgraded<\/a>\u00a0SoftBank\u2019s credit rating, citing that the additional investment would \u201cfurther reduce SoftBank Group\u2019s financial capacity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Concerns Mount Around OpenAI\u2019s Growth<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">OpenAI, with a current valuation of $852 billion, needs substantial funding to continue developing its AI models, while paying for its\u00a0vast computing needs,\u00a0and retaining top talent in a competitive market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">Image via Shutterstock<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"text-sm my-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/apis?utm_source=benzinga.com&amp;utm_campaign=article-bottom\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\u00a9 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block core-block\">To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.benzinga.com\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, the Japanese investment giant and its bankers have discussed reducing the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[20703,11930,15898,9180,8789,8111,5893,9655,5896,5892,157,5891,20704,9466],"class_list":{"0":"post-32254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-openai","8":"tag-category-asia","9":"tag-category-financing","10":"tag-category-global","11":"tag-category-ipos","12":"tag-category-large-cap","13":"tag-category-markets","14":"tag-category-news","15":"tag-category-startups","16":"tag-category-tech","17":"tag-cms-wordpress","18":"tag-openai","19":"tag-pageisbzpro-bz","20":"tag-symbol-sftby","21":"tag-tag-openai"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}