SoftBank wants to borrow against its OpenAI stake. The number now on the table is $6 billion, yet Bloomberg reported on June 9 that the deal had stalled after discussions with lenders.
The awkward part is that $6 billion was already the scaled-back version. SoftBank initially sought a $10 billion margin loan, using its private OpenAI shares as collateral. In early May it cut the target by 40%, hoping the larger safety cushion would bring banks in. By June, that structure still had not cleared the market.
Why lenders are cautious
A margin loan is simple in theory: if the borrower cannot repay, the lender sells the collateral. That logic becomes messy when the collateral is a stake in a private company. OpenAI may be discussed at valuations of $852 billion or $965 billion, but those are private-market marks, not a daily public price that a bank can rely on.
Private shares are also hard to liquidate under pressure. If SoftBank defaulted, a lender would still need to find a buyer for a large OpenAI block and agree on a price. That is why the risk is less about whether OpenAI is valuable and more about how much cash its private shares can safely support today.
SoftBank needs the liquidity
SoftBank has committed tens of billions of dollars to OpenAI. In March it arranged a $40 billion bridge loan tied to its OpenAI investment and corporate funding needs, and it is also a partner in the Stargate AI infrastructure project announced in January 2025. The company has kept adding to this OpenAI exposure since its first investment in September 2024.
Borrowing against shares it already holds would have been a natural way to refill liquidity. The stalled loan shows that even a marquee AI asset does not automatically become usable cash when it remains private.
The bigger signal for AI valuations
A failed $6 billion loan is not large by SoftBank's standards. Its importance is the discount it reveals. Private AI valuations can look enormous in fundraising rounds, but lenders apply a much harsher test when asked to treat those shares as collateral.
That is one reason OpenAI and Anthropic are moving toward IPO options. A public listing gives shares a market-cleared price, which makes margin loans, employee liquidity and the wider AI financing chain easier to price. Until then, the question is how many investors are willing to treat private AI equity as something close to hard currency.
Sources: Bloomberg reporting on SoftBank's stalled $6 billion OpenAI margin loan and earlier 40% target cut; Reuters / Investing.com summary of the Bloomberg report; Analytics Insight coverage of lender caution; CocoLoop.