SoftBank Wants More Firepower For Its $64.6 Billion OpenAI Bet

Caroline Ryan

Thu, September 17, 2026 at 10:11 PM GMT+3 2 min read

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Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) is in talks to increase its loan to SoftBank's Vision Fund II from $5.4 billion to as much as $9 billion, potentially giving the Japanese conglomerate additional financing capacity for its massive investment in OpenAI.

The deal size has not yet been determined, according to Bloomberg.

Apollo has previously extended financing to SoftBank's venture capital arm in 2021. The lender increased the facility by another $900 million last year, bringing its total size to $5.4 billion. NAV financing allows private capital managers to raise liquidity by using investments held with their funds as collateral.

SoftBank has been making a major push into artificial intelligence investments. Earlier this year, the firm pursued a $10 billion margin loan, a revolving line of credit that allows a firm to borrow cash to finance additional investments.

The firm previously invested in Sam Altman's company, making an additional follow-on investment of $30 billion earlier this year, representing a 13% ownership interest.

At the time, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son called OpenAI "a clear leader" and emphasized a conviction in its continued growth.

"Through this additional investment, we will accelerate OpenAI's research and ecosystem expansion, while advancing our own ASI strategy," he added.

In early March, S&P downgraded SoftBank's credit rating, citing that the additional investment would "further reduce SoftBank Group's financial capacity." The report added that OpenAI was one of its investments with the "weakest credit quality."

In July, S&P revised SoftBank Corp's outlook to stable from negative while affirming its BBB rating, citing stable operations despite increased AI and data center investments.

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This article SoftBank Wants More Firepower For Its $64.6 Billion OpenAI Bet originally appeared on Benzinga.com

SoftBank Wants More Firepower For Its $64.6 Billion OpenAI Bet

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