SoftBank Adds 21 Lenders to $40 Billion OpenAI Loan, Wins Preferred Bidder Status for SP.LINKS

{
  "signal_id": "d360a151-80b2-e0fe-5faa-19716f0f6980",
  "signal_type": "news",
  "signal_subtype": "acquires",
  "detected_at": "2026-07-28T09:21:51+00:00",
  "company": {
    "name": "SoftBank",
    "domain": "softbank.jp"
  },
  "data": {
    "url": "https://www.tradingkey.com/analysis/stocks/more/262058483-softbank-openai-ipo-masayoshi-son-splinks-arm-tradingkey",
    "title": "SoftBank Adds 21 Lenders to $40 Billion OpenAI Loan, Wins Preferred Bidder Status for SP.LINKS - TradingKey",
    "excerpt": "TradingKey - On July 28, SoftBank Group recently made new progress in both capital markets and M&A. On one hand, the $40 billion bridge loan raised for investing in OpenAI attracted another 21 financial institutions during the syndication distribution phase; on the other hand, negotiations to acquire Blackstone ( BX )'s Japanese payment company SP.LINKS have entered their final stage. It is understood that the signing of this $40 billion bridge loan was officially completed in March this year, initially underwritten by nine banks. A few months later, the loan entered a large-scale distribution phase, with 21 new institutions collectively taking on about $7 billion of the loan commitment. Among them, First Abu Dhabi Bank, GIC, and Standard Chartered Bank each committed nearly $1 billion, with the remaining allocation held by various banks across Europe, Japan, and Taiwan. The loan has a term of 12 months with an initial spread of approximately 250 basis points. Based on the current SOFR level, the implied interest rate is about 6.14%, making it one of the largest bridge financings on record in the Asia-Pacific region. Some participating banks internally expressed concerns about SoftBank's over-concentration of bets on OpenAI, but judging from the final subscription results, this did not dampen the overall market's enthusiasm. The underwriters expect to earn over $100 million in...",
    "summary": "SoftBank's telecommunications subsidiary has obtained preferred bidder status and entered exclusive negotiations to acquire SP.LINKS, a Japanese payment service provider held by Blackstone.",
    "location": "Japan",
    "planning": false,
    "image_url": "https://resource.tradingkey.com/cms_uploads/img/20231110/8d67c8d53a4fb2c49e802e32e50e3c45.jpg",
    "confidence": 0.9,
    "published_at": "2026-07-28T09:21:51Z",
    "location_data": [
      {
        "region": "Eastern Asia",
        "country": "Japan",
        "continent": "Asia",
        "fuzzy_match": false
      }
    ],
    "article_sentence": "People familiar with the matter revealed that SoftBank's telecommunications subsidiary has obtained preferred bidder status for SP.LINKS, a Japanese payment service provider held by Blackstone, and has entered the exclusive negotiation phase.",
    "related_company_name": "SP.LINKS",
    "related_company_domain": "splinks.com"
  }
}

curl https://signals.autobound.ai/v1/signals/d360a151-80b2-e0fe-5faa-19716f0f6980 \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $AUTOBOUND_API_KEY"

curl -X POST https://signals.autobound.ai/v1/companies/enrich \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $AUTOBOUND_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domain":"softbank.jp","limit":20}'