SoftBank restarts its overseas debt issuance engine to catch up with the wave of AI! Speeding up the advancement of Masayoshi Son's "AI grand plan"

Legendary investor Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group (SFTBF.US), which is steering under the banner of aggressive AI financing plans represented by substantial AI investments such as betting on AI leader OpenAI and the "Stargate" large-scale AI infrastructure project, has made a second return to the overseas bond market this year. This move signifies that SoftBank Group is actively raising funds, accelerating the realization of Masayoshi Son's envisioned "AI ambitions" since the global popularity of ChatGPT. Media reports citing sources familiar with the matter stated that the Japanese tech industry investment giant plans to raise approximately $1.5 billion to $2 billion in the US dollar bond market and also intends to raise around 500 million (approximately $580 million) through Euro-denominated notes. However, the sources mentioned that the specific details of the issuance have not been finalized and are subject to change. Regarding the latest US dollar bond and Euro note issuance plans, a spokesperson for SoftBank Group stated that the issuance size has not been finalized yet as the transactions are still ongoing. Given the high emphasis on AI-related investments, SoftBank billionaire founder Masayoshi Son has committed to a super project called "Stargate" with a potential investment of up to $500 billion and earlier this year announced plans to hold a stake in the AI leader OpenAI valued at up to $300 billion. Recent data shows that Japanese companies have set a new historical record by issuing over $100 billion in bonds in the overseas market this year, mainly due to these large Japanese companies accelerating their mergers and acquisitions pace and the positive sentiment brought about by the new round of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The higher yield rates on yen-denominated debt issuances have also made investors cautious about the Japanese domestic bond market. Institutional compiled data shows that SoftBank has raised at least $24 billion so far this year through loans and bond markets, marking one of the largest financing actions in the history of the investment giant. SoftBank Group has been active in the domestic Japanese bond market as well, pricing $6 billion yen (approximately $40 billion) worth of notes towards individual investors back in April, ranking it as one of the largest such issuances in the history of the Japanese bond market. Sources say that during a global investor conference call on Tuesday, SoftBank management stated that the company still plans to complete its total investment of up to $30 billion in OpenAI before the end of the year, but did not provide a more specific investment timeline and declined to disclose their current ownership percentage of OpenAI. Masayoshi Son's "AI ambitions" According to Wall Street financial giants Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Loop Capital, and Wedbush, the global wave of AI infrastructure investments centered around AI computation power hardware is far from over and is only in its early stages. Driven by an unprecedented "AI computation power demand storm," this round of AI investment wave is expected to reach a scale of $2 trillion to $3 trillion. NVIDIA Corporation CEO Jensen Huang predicts that by 2030, expenditures on AI infrastructure will reach $3 trillion to $4 trillion, with its scale and scope bringing significant long-term growth opportunities to NVIDIA Corporation. The demand for AI computation power brought about by the dominant generative AI applications and AI intelligence systems at the inference-end is immense, likely to drive a continuous exponential growth in the AI computation power infrastructure market. Huang regards "AI inference systems" as the primary source of NVIDIA Corporation's future revenue and the core computation support for the AI era. The 67-year-old SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son's "AI super grand plan" focusing on SoftBank's ability to play a role at the core of global AI dissemination akin to NVIDIA Corporation undoubtedly aims to enjoy the enormous investment returns brought about by the global AI mega wave. The core of this advancement involves ARM, a chip design leader in which SoftBank holds a stake of up to 90%, along with the $500 billion "Stargate" super large-scale data center project in the US with OpenAI, Oracle Corporation, and MGX Abu Dhabi Technology Investment Fund, as well as significant long-term investments in AI leaders such as NVIDIA Corporation and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. As part of its multi-pronged entry into the AI field, SoftBank plans to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI and has signed a $6.5 billion agreement to acquire renowned chip designer Ampere Computing Holdings. In addition, Son has been lobbying chip industry leaders such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. to participate in the creation of a $1 trillion AI manufacturing center in Arizona. The continued surge in global AI computation power demand, coupled with the increasingly massive US government-led AI infrastructure investment projects and the continuous investment by tech giants into the construction of large data centers, largely implies that the global "AI belief" sweeping across the world is far from over for investors dedicated to NVIDIA Corporation and the AI computation power industry chain. They are betting on the skyrocketing stock prices of companies in the AI computation power industry chain led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and NVIDIA Corporation, expecting a continued "bullish curve" in the stock prices. Masayoshi Son's massive bet on the AI mega wave has brought about a major turnaround, propelling this Tokyo-based investment giant to a whopping 160% increase in the Japanese stock market this year. Since 2025, it has consistently hit historical highs and is currently hovering near its all-time high. In the US stock market, SoftBank (SFTBY.US) ADR trading prices have similarly hit new highs since 2025, with a year-to-date increase of up to 180%.