SoftBank Group raised $11.1 billion in dollar- and euro-denominated senior notes in the largest high-yield corporate bond sale on record globally, as the tech investment conglomerate funds its OpenAI stake and other AI bets, Reuters reported.
The priced package follows SoftBank’s earlier ~$11 billion bond launch and turns the term-sheet offering into issued paper. SoftBank sold dollar senior notes of $1 billion at 3-1/2 years, $4.5 billion at 5-1/2 years, and $4.5 billion at 7-1/2 years, paying 8.625%, 9.25%, and 9.75% respectively. Two €500 million euro senior-note tranches, at four and six years, yielded 7.125% and 8%. By comparison, a $7.3 billion SoftBank dollar-and-euro sale in June 2021 yielded between 2.125% and 5.25%, Reuters said.
LSEG data cited by Reuters show the sale surpasses French telecom Numericable Group’s $10.9 billion high-yield issuance in 2014. SoftBank has issued $14.6 billion in high-yield bonds so far in 2026, about 63.4% of the Asia Pacific and Japan high-yield corporate bond market. The deal comes after a 1 trillion yen (about $6.3 billion) retail-aimed bond issue this month.
Under Masayoshi Son, SoftBank has committed $64.6 billion to OpenAI and will own roughly 13% by next week, Reuters said. It is also acquiring ABB’s robotics business for $5.4 billion and DigitalBridge for $3.1 billion. SoftBank has long been a junk-bond issuer; the scale of AI-related funding has pushed yields higher and lifted the cost of insuring its debt, with the five-year CDS spread exceeding 400 basis points this week versus about 280 in June.
Fitch Ratings senior director Satoru Aoyama told Reuters he was “positively surprised by the market appetite,” adding that AI-driven debt issuance has now reached the high-yield market at scale. SoftBank shares ended Thursday up 0.6% after Tokyo markets reopened following national holidays.
This brief covers the priced, record-size high-yield issuance and yield book; it does not restate the September 21 launch term sheet.