SoftBank Takes Out a $40 Billion Loan: JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs Bet on an OpenAI IPO

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are preparing to give the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank an unsecured $40 billion loan with a 12-month term. It is one of the largest deals of its kind in the history of corporate lending, and Wall Street already sees it as indirect confirmation that an OpenAI IPO could happen this year.

SoftBank is OpenAI's largest outside shareholder. Under the February Stargate deal, the Japanese conglomerate committed to invest $30 billion in OpenAI directly and another $70 billion through an infrastructure fund. Masayoshi Son, SoftBank's CEO, has long treated AI as the defining technology position of the decade: in January 2025 he stood next to Trump at the Stargate announcement, promising $500 billion in investment and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

A $40 billion loan that is unsecured, meaning without pledged assets, looks unusual. Banks normally demand collateral at this scale. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs agreeing to collateral-free terms signals that they believe SoftBank can repay through a specific, near-term source of liquidity. An OpenAI IPO fits that role ideally.

The logic is simple. SoftBank holds a stake in OpenAI worth, by various estimates, $40–60 billion, against the company's current private valuation of $300+ billion. If OpenAI goes public in 2026, SoftBank could sell part of its shares or use them as collateral to refinance. The loan's twelve-month term is no accident: it fits the most likely window for an IPO in the second half of 2026.

OpenAI itself has given mixed signals about going public. In late 2024 the company announced a restructuring toward a standard commercial model, which is a prerequisite for an IPO. Sam Altman has repeatedly mentioned an IPO as a possible scenario without naming a date. Masayoshi Son has been more direct: in his words, OpenAI will change civilization, so becoming its shareholder is a historic opportunity.

Why SoftBank needs $40 billion right now is a separate question. The most likely explanations: topping up capital for its Stargate infrastructure positions, buying OpenAI secondary shares on the market at prices below a possible IPO, and refinancing its own debt. SoftBank has historically operated with high leverage: Vision Fund 1 raised $100 billion in 2017 and went through several painful write-downs, including WeWork.

The event matters for the AI industry for several reasons. First, it confirms that traditional financial institutions, not just venture funds, are now betting on AI as the defining asset of the era. Second, if the OpenAI IPO happens in 2026, it will be the largest tech listing since Alibaba in 2014. Third, a public OpenAI would fundamentally change transparency: for the first time, the market would see the real revenue, margins and growth rate of one of the world's most secretive companies.

So far these are only indirect signals. Neither OpenAI nor SoftBank has officially confirmed an IPO. But when Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan together lend $40 billion with no collateral for 12 months, this is no longer rumor. It is a calculation.