SoftBank closes final $10B OpenAI tranche, bringing its stake to about 13%
SoftBank Group said Thursday it executed the third and final $10 billion tranche of its previously announced follow-on investment in OpenAI, completing a $30 billion commitment and lifting SoftBank’s cumulative OpenAI investment to $64.6 billion with roughly 13% ownership.
SoftBank already pledged the money, and Thursday is the cash moving. Completing the last $10 billion tranche turns a February promise into a finished $30 billion follow-on and a disclosed stake of about 13%, which matters for who finances the next wave of the most advanced AI computers and how SoftBank’s balance sheet is tied to OpenAI.
On Thursday, 1 October 2026, SoftBank Group Corp. said it executed the third and final tranche of its follow-on investment in OpenAI Group PBC. The release is dated October 1, 2026, Japan time. The money moved through SoftBank Vision Fund 2, the SoftBank fund making the purchase, in the amount of $10.0 billion. SoftBank also prints that sum as 1,579.6 billion yen, at its stated rate of 157.96 yen to the dollar. Ten billion dollars times 157.96 is 1,579.6 billion yen. That multiplication matches the figure SoftBank printed. A tranche is one scheduled slice of a larger investment. A follow-on is more money after an earlier round. Those lines are SoftBank’s.
What Thursday finishes. SoftBank said the payment completes the $30.0 billion of follow-on investments in OpenAI that it had already announced. Three slices of $10 billion are $30 billion. After this slice, SoftBank said its cumulative investment in OpenAI totals $64.6 billion, and its ownership interest is approximately 13%. Cumulative means the new money plus what SoftBank had already put in. About 13% is a large stake. It is the share SoftBank disclosed. The release does not say SoftBank controls OpenAI, and it does not name a board seat. Those lines are SoftBank’s.
Where the $10 billion came from. SoftBank said the third tranche was funded with the proceeds of foreign-currency senior notes it announced on September 24, 2026. A senior note is a bond that ranks with the company’s ordinary debt and is not tied to one building or one pile of stock as collateral. Foreign-currency, here, means the bonds are in dollars and euros, not yen. On that September 24 release, SoftBank set the size at about $11.1 billion: $10 billion of dollar notes and €1 billion of euro notes. It converted the euro portion at 1.1383 dollars to the euro. One billion euros at that rate is about $1.14 billion, and $10 billion plus that is the about $11.1 billion SoftBank printed. The stated use of the money was to fund this $10 billion OpenAI payment, then expected to close on October 1, and for general corporate purposes. General corporate purposes is cash the company can use beyond the named payment. Thursday’s release says the tranche was funded with those proceeds. The interest rate on each bond is on the September 24 page. Those rates are SoftBank’s.
The short-term loan this was meant to replace. Effective September 30, 2026, SoftBank said it canceled the remaining $10.0 billion of undrawn capacity under a bridge facility it entered on March 27, 2026. A bridge facility is a short-term loan meant to be replaced later, here by the notes. Undrawn means the lenders had agreed to provide the money and SoftBank had not yet taken that cash. The whole facility was $40.0 billion. SoftBank said that after this cancellation, and after an early repayment it announced on September 9, 2026, every borrowing under that bridge has been repaid and no undrawn commitment remains. Those lines are the October 1 release.
What the February agreement scheduled, so the October close has a before. On February 27, 2026, SoftBank said it signed an agreement to invest a further $30.0 billion in OpenAI through Vision Fund 2, in three tranches of $10 billion. The dates it printed, in Japan time, were April 1 for the first, July 1 for the second, and October 1 for the third. It said it had already invested $34.6 billion in OpenAI through Vision Fund 2 since September 2024. Adding that $34.6 billion to the new $30 billion is $64.6 billion. That addition is arithmetic, and it is the cumulative total the February release said to expect once the follow-on was finished. Thursday’s release states that total, and the stake of about 13%, as the result now in hand. The securities, on the February page, are preferred shares that convert automatically into common shares if OpenAI sells shares to the public or lists. Preferred shares are a class of stock with terms written into the deal. Common shares are the ordinary stock. The February page also printed a pre-money valuation of $730 billion for the round. Pre-money means the value placed on the company before this new money. Thursday’s release does not restate a valuation. OpenAI Group PBC, on that February page, is a public benefit corporation in San Francisco, led by Sam Altman, reorganized into that form in October 2025. A public benefit corporation is a company with a stated public mission written into its charter, not only a duty to shareholders. Those lines stay with the page that printed them.
The picture is an official photograph from the Office of the Prime Minister of Japan. Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s chairman, and Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, sit with Japan’s prime minister at a meeting, Japanese and American flags behind them. The Wikimedia record of the photograph dates the meeting to February 3, 2025, at the Prime Minister’s Residence, when Shigeru Ishiba was prime minister. The photograph shows the two principals. It is not a picture of Thursday’s closing papers, and the frame does not print a calendar date.
In plain terms, SoftBank said on Thursday that Vision Fund 2 paid the last $10 billion of a $30 billion follow-on in OpenAI, and that SoftBank’s total investment is now $64.6 billion for a stake of about 13%. SoftBank said the cash came from the dollar and euro notes it announced on September 24, about $11.1 billion in all, and that the leftover $10 billion of unused room on a $40 billion bridge loan was canceled on September 30, so that bridge is closed. The February agreement is what scheduled this October 1 slice, including the preferred shares and the $730 billion pre-money figure. Thursday’s release does not restate that valuation, does not name a board seat, and does not say SoftBank controls OpenAI.