SoftBank's shares fell more than 13% in Tokyo on Monday, marking the largest one-day drop in nearly three months. The sell-off followed calls from leaders at Anthropic and OpenAI to slow development of frontier artificial intelligence on safety grounds, which renewed investor scrutiny of the Japanese technology investor's large, debt-funded AI bets.
What happened and the context
- The calls from Anthropic and OpenAI leaders to slow development came after a series of serious security incidents.
- Sam Altman, co‑founder of OpenAI, confirmed that the startup will not pursue an initial public offering in 2026 — a development seen as negative for SoftBank, whose shares have lost about 30% of their value since their June peak.
- Investors have been concerned not only on the equity side but also on the credit side: SoftBank's credit‑default swap (CDS) premia have risen to levels seen in March, approaching a three‑year high.
Financing and indebtedness
SoftBank is one of the largest investors in OpenAI; its capital deployed into the ChatGPT developer is expected to reach $65 billion by October. To finance its AI commitments the group has taken on increasing amounts of debt:
- Last week SoftBank provided an $11.87 billion loan to support its holdings in OpenAI.
- From a previously arranged $40 billion credit facility, $25.9 billion remains outstanding; the company announced it will repay that outstanding amount on Tuesday, ahead of the facility's maturity next March.
- Additional financing plans include retail bond issues worth several trillion yen, a $10 billion loan tied to OpenAI shares, and a potential bond sale of up to $20 billion.
Proceeds are intended to help finance acquisitions such as ABB Robotics and DigitalBridge, as well as planned data‑centre construction around the world.
Market and management responses
Market worries have been amplified by the safety debate around AI, though Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, sought to reassure markets that slowing the pace of frontier AI development does not imply a reduction in spending or investment.
SoftBank reported a profit for the quarter ended in June, helped by valuation gains in its stakes in Intel and ByteDance.
Conclusion
Monday's share price slump underlines how developments in AI safety, governance and funding can quickly affect investor sentiment. SoftBank's large, debt‑financed exposure to AI increases its financial vulnerability, even as management takes steps to shore up its balance sheet.
(This article was prepared with the assistance of an AI tool; the final content was edited and approved by our journalist.)
