People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that SoftBank Group Corp.'s talks to raise at least $6 billion through a margin loan secured by its stake in OpenAI have stalled. The Japanese conglomerate had earlier cut its original $10 billion target, and by the time discussions paused it had lined up roughly $5 billion of potential financing.
Some prospective lenders balked at the challenge of valuing an unlisted company such as OpenAI. That difficulty matters for loans backed by equity: even if lenders believe the asset could appreciate significantly, they still need a defensible number to assign to the collateral when underwriting credit.
The pause came shortly after OpenAI confidentially filed for a US initial public offering (IPO) this week, and is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a potential listing as soon as the fall.
Why this matters
- OpenAI's size and recent valuation moves have been material enough to reshape SoftBank's balance sheet. Gains tied to OpenAI pushed SoftBank to overtake Toyota as Japan's most valuable company.
- The situation highlights a wider market issue: being a very valuable asset does not automatically make a holding fungible as loan collateral. Banks require an observable, defendable price to manage credit risk.
Takeaway
The market appears willing to own stakes in OpenAI, but it cannot agree on a single valuation that would support lending against those stakes. As a result, the most valuable private company in tech is simultaneously too significant to ignore and too difficult to price for widespread use as collateral.
(This article is based on reporting by Bloomberg; the cited sources spoke on condition of anonymity.)
