SoftBank Group is planning a record ?1 trillion ($6.3 billion) retail bond sale, the biggest by any issuer in Japan, as the conglomerate raises funds for its investment commitments to OpenAI.
The 7-year bonds are expected to be priced on Sept. 4, with an indicative coupon range of 4.3% to 4.9%, according to a company filing.
SoftBank’s move is the latest in a global rush to amass funds in the hyper-competitive race for global leadership in artificial intelligence. On Monday, Alibaba Group Holding raised 80 billion Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong’s biggest secondary share sale on record to help it fund its efforts to pour money into chips, data centers and large-language models. Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Amazon.com — the four largest players in the data center race — have pledged nearly $2.4 trillion in AI-related spending over the coming years.
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