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SoftBank renews its $6.5bn standby credit line with more than 20 banks for one more year
SoftBank's $450m top-up lifts a bank facility to $6.5bn and buys another year in which it can draw, at 210 basis points over SOFR. More than 20 lenders share it, and it is the smallest number the group signed this week.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- SoftBank has added $450m to an existing credit line, lifting the facility to $6.5bn, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
- The $6.05bn facility it replaces was due to expire this month, and the expanded line gives the group another year in which it can draw.
- More than 20 banks are involved, and the new money carries an interest margin of 210 basis points over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate.
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Why it matters
- constraint The buffer comes up for renewal every twelve months, so more than 20 lenders get an annual say in whether SoftBank keeps $6.5bn on standby, while the OpenAI payment schedule runs on its own calendar.
- decision With the last $10bn installment due October 1 and the next bridge draw available only in early October, the sequencing of SoftBank's funding has to be settled in days.
- exposure Both AI holdings are now pledged, Arm shares behind a $25bn margin loan and the OpenAI stake behind a $10bn loan, so lenders' collateral moves with the same prices the investment case rests on.
- contradiction SoftBank says nothing has been determined on a bond, while Bloomberg's reporting has a deal reaching investors within a week; the two accounts imply different timetables for the same money.
Lenders hold the money available for a set period, and borrowers treat these revolving facilities as liquidity insurance, frequently never touching them [5]. Bloomberg did not report whether SoftBank has drawn on this one or intends to, and a company representative declined to comment [4]. The account rests on people Bloomberg did not name, and TNW said it has not independently verified the reporting [15].
Against the $30bn SoftBank committed to OpenAI in February, the $6.5bn facility is about 22% [6][1]. The same facility is about 10% of the $64.6bn cumulative investment the company described at the time [7][2]. Lines like this cover timing [5].
Split evenly across 20 lenders, $6.5bn is $325m each, and more than 20 are involved, so the average commitment is smaller than that [3][6]. Each of those commitments runs for twelve months before it comes up for renewal [2].
Everything else SoftBank did in the same period is bigger. It repaid the $25.9bn outstanding on the $40bn bridge loan it signed in March [8], and the term loan and stake-secured loan it has taken since come to $21.87bn [9][8]. Bloomberg also reported a $5bn increase in the Arm-backed margin loan, to $25bn, and talks with Apollo Global Management to lift a separate loan to $9bn from $5.4bn, an increase of $3.6bn [10][4]. The $450m top-up is the smallest of those figures [7].
The final $10bn OpenAI installment falls due on October 1 [6], and the remaining $10bn of the bridge can next be drawn in early October [13]. SoftBank met fixed-income investors in New York this week about a junk bond of $10bn to $20bn, and Bloomberg reported that a deal could reach the market as early as next week; the company said those meetings were non-deal and that nothing had been determined on any bond issuance [11][12]. Earlier in the week, the cost of insuring SoftBank's debt against default hit a three-year high [14].
Two dates matter here: when the cash has to leave, and when the lenders' promise expires. A team funding a multi-year build with a line that renews annually is relying on the renewal, and that renewal means each of the more than 20 lenders has to commit again. SoftBank's next one comes up in a year [2]. Its next $10bn payment is due on October 1 [6].
What to watch
- Whether the $10bn to $20bn junk bond prints next week, and at what spread.
- Whether Apollo's loan to SoftBank moves to $9bn from $5.4bn.
- How the October 1 installment is paid when the remaining bridge draw opens in early October.