SoftBank Group plans to issue ¥1 trillion, about $6.3 billion, of yen-denominated bonds to Japanese retail investors. The proposed sale would be the largest retail bond offering ever undertaken by a Japanese company.
The bonds will have a seven-year maturity and are scheduled to be priced on September 4. SoftBank has set an indicative annual coupon range of 4.3% to 4.9%, with the final terms still to be determined through the issuance process.
The company says proceeds will partly finance artificial-intelligence investments and partly repay previously issued bonds. The allocation therefore combines growth capital with refinancing rather than committing the entire amount to new AI projects.
At ¥1 trillion, the transaction would match the size of an earlier NTT Finance debt sale to institutional investors, but it would set a record specifically for a Japanese corporate retail offering. That distinction matters because individuals, not only professional institutions, absorb the credit risk.
SoftBank regularly uses the domestic retail market through notes branded after the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks baseball team. Higher coupons than traditional deposits can attract households seeking income, although bondholders accept issuer and interest-rate risk.
The financing supports an AI strategy centred partly on OpenAI and related infrastructure. SoftBank’s cumulative investments and commitments to OpenAI are expected to exceed $60 billion, giving the group a large and concentrated exposure to the sector.
Japanese credit-rating agencies give SoftBank relatively solid grades, while major international agencies classify it as speculative grade because of leverage and volatile technology holdings. Rising Japanese interest rates could increase refinancing costs and intensify scrutiny of the balance sheet.
SoftBank has also sold its entire Nvidia stake and expanded financing secured against shares in Arm to fund its ambitions. Its stock fell 5.3% on August 24 amid broader weakness in AI-related shares, underscoring that the planned bond issue increases funding capacity but does not eliminate market risk.
