The company will pay down the entire outstanding balance of US$25.9 billion on Sept 15, according to a statement.

The loan is SoftBank’s largest-ever borrowing denominated solely in dollars, reflecting founder Masayoshi Son’s determination to position his company at the centre of the global AI boom. The non-collateralised borrowing was due to mature in March next year, and was used for SoftBank’s investments in OpenAI as well as for other costs, the company had said in March.

The development comes as SoftBank is set to hold meetings with investors in New York next week to sound out interest for a potential US dollar junk-bond sale. The Japanese firm is considering raising US$10 billion to US$20 billion from a junk-bond sale, which may also include a tranche in euros, people familiar with the matter said last month. It also recently secured a US$10 billion margin loan backed by its OpenAI stake.

In August, SoftBank chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto had said that the company intended to begin taking out the US$40 billion bridge loan ahead of schedule through permanent financing. That could include bank-led syndicated loans and bond issuances in the domestic and international markets, as well as asset-backed financing including margin loans, financing involving derivatives and potentially asset sales, he said.  

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