Softbank raises $4.1 billion in record-breaking retail bond sales to backarm deals

Softbank Group plans to raise 600 billion yen ($41 billion) by issuing bonds aimed at retail investors, according to a filing made on Monday.

This shows the company’s biggest bond sales to date. The funds will be directed to cover redemptions of existing bonds and some of the payments for Chip Designer Arm’s shares that SoftBank bought back from its own Vision Fund last August.

“This is SoftBank’s largest bond issuance in history, and revenue will be used to redeem existing bonds and cover some of the outstanding payments in August 2023 regarding the acquisition of Chip Designer Arm shares from Vision Fund Investment Vehicle.”

The timing is no coincidence. In March, SoftBank announced plans to acquire Ampere Computing, a startup building arm-based server chip, in a $6.5 billion deal. It is clear that SoftBank is putting a great bet on the future of chip design and infrastructure.

The son of the founder’s son was not embarrassed to use his debts to fund his bold investments. Last week, SoftBank led Openai’s incredible $40 billion funding round.

The new bonds matured in May 2030, offering yields of 3% to 3.6%, with the final rate being locked up on April 18th.

SoftBank currently holds approximately 7 trillion yen ($47.83 billion) in unresolved bonds based on LSEG data. The company says it is keeping an eye on debt loads and targets loan-to-asset ratios of less than 25%. As of December 2024, that figure was 12.9%.

SoftBank has been doubling AI recently. In addition to Openai investments, it is part of Stargate and a $500 billion AI infrastructure push linked to former US President Donald Trump. The company is also working with Openai on enterprise-centric AI products.

This bond sales demonstrates SoftBank’s continued driving force in repositioning itself as a future central player in AI and semiconductor technology, putting real money behind its vision.