SoftBank Retires 2027 Euro Bond Early While Investors Keep Grilling Its AI Balance Sheet
Published on 10/23/2026 at 05:50 | Editorial boerse-global.de
SoftBank Group has wrapped up the early redemption of its 2.875% senior euro-denominated notes, pulling the entire issue off the market well ahead of its scheduled maturity on 6 January 2027. The bonds have been repaid in full and cancelled, leaving nothing outstanding from that particular sale.
The timing is awkward. The buyback landed on the same day SoftBank's stock took an 8.4% hit, caught in a broader selloff of Asian technology names as worries about AI spending and rising financing costs weighed on the group.
A Cleaned-Up Liability, Not a Cleared-Up Worry
Retiring the notes settles one line item and nothing more. The question now dogging investors is a different one: how SoftBank funds its next round of artificial intelligence bets, and how much debt the group can carry while doing so. Those two threads should not be tangled together.
Bloomberg reported on the strain from heavy AI outlays, climbing borrowing costs and SoftBank's leverage, noting that the company's credit default swaps had reached their highest level in almost four years on Tuesday. Equity and credit markets are effectively asking the same thing — how the investment programme gets paid for, and what returns it eventually throws off. Clearing a single bond issue does nothing to answer that.
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The OpenAI Stake at the Heart of the Debate
The scale of SoftBank's commitment to OpenAI, put at close to $65 billion by Bloomberg, has become the focal point. Investors are increasingly questioning whether that capital deployment can be justified economically now that financing has become more expensive. A convincing technological story alone does not settle the arithmetic.
SoftBank's shares fell 7.1% on the day, a move that underlines how hard those concerns are hitting the valuation. Two separate questions are in play: what the stake might deliver over the long run, and on what terms the capital behind it can be raised. Today's unease is mostly about where those two meet.
A Record Junk Sale That Cuts Both Ways
Context matters here. Roughly three weeks ago SoftBank raised $11.1 billion through what Bloomberg described as the largest corporate junk-bond sale on record, with yields of up to 9.75%. Reuters put the volume at $11 billion and framed the deal against scrutiny of the group's concentrated AI wagers and the difficulty of generating returns from them.
The transaction proves SoftBank still has a door into the bond market. It does not prove future funding will come on unchanged terms — which is precisely why rising borrowing costs matter to how the AI strategy is judged, even absent any fresh corporate decision.
Skepticism Is Spreading Beyond One Balance Sheet
The pressure is not confined to SoftBank. Bloomberg also flags CoreWeave bonds trading at distressed levels, while Reuters describes a more cautious investor stance toward expected AI spending next year and concerns about possible weaker demand from China. That frames the selling: SoftBank is being valued in a market that is taking a harder look at whether large AI budgets can hold up. CoreWeave's troubles do not signal any immediate funding problem at SoftBank — they show that doubt has spread across other corners of the AI trade.
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Open Questions: Allied Universal and Gulf Capital
Two potential commitments are drawing attention without being decided. Reuters reported on 16 October that SoftBank was weighing a purchase of Allied Universal, a deal that could value the US security services provider at around $18 billion. Talks were at an early stage and no final decision had been made.
Separately, Reuters picked up a Financial Times report on 9 October that Masayoshi Son was seeking up to $100 billion from Gulf investors for AI investments. Reuters could not independently verify the report, and SoftBank did not respond to a request for comment.
So investors are left holding a finished item and a pile of unfinished ones. The euro notes are gone. The discussed takeover and the reported fundraising are not completed transactions. And with the OpenAI position running up against a more skeptical funding climate, the focus sits less on today's share price than on whether the returns can carry the cost of the capital behind them.
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