SoftBank Completes $30bn OpenAI Investment with Final $10bn Payment
SoftBank Group (learn more) (read more here) has completed its $30bn follow-on investment in OpenAI, after paying the third and final $10bn tranche on 1 October, Japan time. The Japanese group made the payment through its Vision Fund 2, it said on Thursday.
With this payment, SoftBank has now put $64.6bn into OpenAI in total, for a stake of about 13%. It agreed the $30bn commitment in late February and split it into three equal payments, due on 1 April, 1 July, and 1 October.
The money formed part of OpenAI’s $122bn funding round, which valued the ChatGPT maker at $852bn. Amazon committed up to $50bn to that round, while Nvidia and SoftBank committed $30bn each.
To cover the final tranche, SoftBank used the proceeds of a foreign-currency bond sale announced on 24 September. The bonds raised $11.1bn, and Reuters described the deal as the world’s largest high-yield corporate bond issue. At the same time, SoftBank has closed the $40bn bridge loan it signed with banks in March to fund the investment. It had drawn $30bn of that facility and repaid the outstanding $25.9bn early in September. On 30 September, SoftBank also cancelled the $10bn it had never drawn. As a result, the company said, all borrowing under the bridge loan has been repaid, and nothing more can be drawn from it.
Before the latest commitment, SoftBank had already invested $34.6bn in OpenAI through Vision Fund 2 since September 2024. The new $30bn makes the group, led by founder Masayoshi Son, one of OpenAI’s largest shareholders.
By Ana-Maria Stanciuc, Editor-in-Chief, TNW
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