SoftBank Group Corp will repay the balance on a $40 billion loan it signed earlier this year to finance its investment in OpenAI.
The company said on Wednesday that it will pay down the entire outstanding balance of $25.9 billion on 15 September.
Why SoftBank is moving early
The loan is SoftBank's largest-ever borrowing denominated solely in dollars, reflecting founder Masayoshi Son's determination to position the company at the centre of the global AI boom.
The non-collateralised borrowing was due to mature in March next year, and had been used both for SoftBank's OpenAI investment and other costs.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kirk Boodry said SoftBank "has tried to stay ahead of that deadline," noting that issuing bonds pushes the maturity out by several years.
"With markets concerned about leverage in general, better to get it done early and avoid any drama," Boodry said.
A wider refinancing push
The repayment comes as SoftBank prepares to meet investors in New York next week, to gauge interest in a potential US dollar junk-bond sale.
The company is considering raising between $10 billion and $20 billion through that sale, which may also include a tranche in euros, according to people familiar with the matter.
SoftBank has separately secured a $10 billion margin loan backed by its OpenAI stake, and is pursuing another $10 billion loan on top of that.
Altogether, the company has already raised the equivalent of about $25 billion this year from offshore and domestic bond sales and a margin loan, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.
The plan behind the numbers
In August, SoftBank chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto said the company intended to begin retiring the $40 billion bridge loan ahead of schedule through permanent financing.
Goto said that could include bank-led syndicated loans, bond issuances in both domestic and international markets, and asset-backed financing such as margin loans, derivatives-linked financing and potentially asset sales.
Taken together, the moves point to a company racing to convert one of its largest-ever borrowing commitments into more stable, longer-term debt before market conditions have the chance to shift.
