On November 12, Bloomberg Law laid out the money trail behind SoftBank's $65 billion bet on OpenAI: since 2021, private credit giant Apollo has provided and arranged more than $15 billion of debt for SoftBank, making SoftBank one of Apollo's largest corporate borrowers. The money did not go directly to OpenAI — instead, layer upon layer of loans props up the most valuable asset in Masayoshi Son's hands.
A collateralized loan that keeps growing
The core instrument is a net asset value loan: Apollo lent against the stated value of more than 150 holdings in Vision Fund 2, starting at $4.5 billion and increasing twice over the past 15 months to $9.2 billion. It matures in 2029 and pays a floating rate of 7.3%. The contract also caps OpenAI at no more than one-fifth of the collateral. Apollo acts as arranger too, taking a 1% fee and distributing pieces to others.
Insurer Athene is deep in as well: as of late September, Athene held at least $4.8 billion of SoftBank-linked obligations, around 1% of its gross invested assets and near its ceiling for any single borrower. In August, when SoftBank struggled to lock down a separate $10 billion loan, Apollo was the only non-bank lender in the deal.
| Key figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Debt Apollo has arranged for SoftBank | Over $15 billion (since 2021) |
| Vision Fund 2 NAV loan | $4.5B → $9.2B, matures 2029, 7.3% rate |
| Athene's SoftBank-linked holdings | At least $4.8 billion |
| OpenAI's latest valuation | $1.25 trillion |
The risk signals are just as clear: SoftBank disclosed about $7 billion of investment losses this week, and its shares have fallen more than 50% since their June peak. Apollo has signaled it is unlikely to commit more OpenAI-related capital to SoftBank until markets are clearer, though the existing $9.2 billion loan may still be increased slightly.
What this shows is that the frontier AI race is no longer just a contest of models — it is also a contest of financing. Whoever can keep borrowing keeps betting. But leverage cuts both ways: if OpenAI's valuation falls and the collateral shrinks, the loan's protection mechanisms kick in and SoftBank's funding chain feels the strain first. The next things to watch are SoftBank's borrowing costs and OpenAI's next funding round — Anthropic's IPO, oversubscribed several times over, already shows that capital markets still have a big appetite for leading AI companies.
