SoftBank Clears Record $11.1 Billion Junk Bond for OpenAI as Nscale Raises $3.36 Billion Pre-IPO
SoftBank prices about $11.1 billion of dollar and euro high-yield notes — framed as the largest corporate junk-bond sale on record — to fund a $10 billion OpenAI tranche due October 1, while Nscale closes $3.36 billion of pre-IPO convertibles against more than $103 billion in contracted AI-cloud backlog, CleanSpark settles $2.276 billion of campus notes, and Victoria, Oregon, and California rewrite who pays for data-center megawatts.
Today’s Signals
- SoftBank $11.1B HY – Largest high-yield corporate bond sale on record (Reuters/LSEG); dollar coupons 8.625-9.75%; funds ~$10B OpenAI tranche due Oct 1 (~$64.6B cumulative / ~13% stake).
- Nscale $3.36B pre-IPO convertibles – Third Point-led; $2.36B at close + $1B Nvidia mid-Nov; company >$103B TCV; Anthropic GPU package financing still open per S-1 caveat.
- CleanSpark $2.276B notes CLOSED – 7.875% senior secured due 2031 settled Sep 25 as priced at 98.5.
- Victoria BYO renewables/BESS – Sep 22 Action Plan: new data centres must match demand with new generation, pay own connection upgrades, use recycled water; >=150 m from homes.
- Oregon Pacific Power settlement – New DCs cover all incremental generation/storage/upgrade costs under POWER Act; PUC vote eyed Nov 13 — not yet a final order.
The Big Story
The AI stack is funding itself with junk debt and pre-IPO convertibles while campus project finance digests power-schedule risk — and governments from Melbourne to Sacramento are rewriting who pays for the electrons. On September 24, SoftBank Group issued about $11.1 billion of dollar- and euro-denominated senior notes that Reuters, citing LSEG data, called the largest high-yield corporate bond sale on record. The dollar book stacked $1 billion at 8.625%, $4.5 billion at 9.25%, and $4.5 billion at 9.75%; two EUR 500 million euro tranches printed at 7.125% and 8%. SoftBank said proceeds help fund a $10 billion payment due October 1 that completes its $30 billion 2026 follow-on into OpenAI — bringing cumulative investment to roughly $64.6 billion and the stake to about 13% on the announced path. Reuters also noted OpenAI and SB Energy IPO timelines had slipped. Friday, Nscale closed a $3.36 billion convertible note round led by Third Point — $2.36 billion at closing plus a $1 billion Nvidia commitment eyed for mid-November — against company-stated contracted value above $103 billion. That is corporate pre-IPO capital, not a free pass on equipment finance: Nscale’s September 18 S-1 still said it had not secured binding commitments for the Anthropic GPU and infrastructure package as of filing. CleanSpark’s CSDC Finance I settled the previously priced $2.276 billion of 7.875% notes due 2031 on September 25. Equity and convertibles are clearing. Single-campus calendars are still the hard part.
AI
SoftBank’s print is an OpenAI equity story before it is a campus story: holding-company junk coupons funding the final 2026 tranche into the ChatGPT maker while Stargate-linked project loans stay on Watching after this week’s Project Jupiter force-majeure headlines. Nscale’s raise lands in the AI-cloud middle — a full-stack platform claiming more than $103 billion of contracted value, with secondary coverage of four Anthropic GPU services agreements at roughly $44.6 billion and about 460 MW at the planned Monarch campus in West Virginia, still subject to the S-1 financing caveat. Separately, Reuters sources said Anthropic signed its first Australian data-centre lease covering a planned 2.16 gigawatt Zerra DC campus near Brisbane, eyed for inference rather than training from 2027, with Foreign Investment Review Board approval still pending. Demand shows up as multi-gigawatt offtake; the constraint remains who can clear GPUs, power, and bankable documents on the same calendar.
Money
Credit is bifurcating by layer. SoftBank’s $11.1 billion high-yield sale cleared with dollar coupons from 8.625% to 9.75%, making SoftBank — on Reuters framing — the dominant Asia-Pacific high-yield issuer year-to-date. Nscale’s $3.36 billion convertible package — Third Point, Nvidia, Apollo-managed funds, Citadel, Hudson Bay, ADIC, and others — is the neocloud answer to the same capital wall, with Nvidia’s $1 billion tranche still to fund in November. CleanSpark closed $2.276 billion of 7.875% senior secured notes for Sandersville at the 98.5 price set September 18 — priced book to funded close in a week. Yesterday’s Oracle-Blue Owl Project Jupiter force majeure and the reported soft trading on about $18 billion of related bank loans stay on Watching.
Energy & Power
Power policy is naming the bill. Victoria’s September 22 Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan requires new campuses to match incremental demand with new renewable generation and battery storage, pay their own connection and network upgrades, and use recycled or non-drinking water for cooling — a state overlay on Australia’s federal push for large data centres to become net renewable generators. In Oregon, Pacific Power’s POWER Act settlement would make new data centers cover all incremental generation, storage, and upgrade costs, with a Public Utility Commission vote eyed November 13 — settlement, not yet a final order. On the nuclear uprate rail, Georgia Power and Google filed a NU-1 tariff under which Google would subscribe to roughly 96 megawatts of added Vogtle and Hatch output and take the associated zero-emission credits, with about $900 million in projected customer benefits — utility projection, Georgia PSC approval still required, and megawatts staying on the Georgia Power system rather than a dedicated campus feed.
Government Power
User-pays is becoming the default legislative language. California’s SB 886 and companion AB 2383, signed September 21, direct the CPUC to adopt data-center interconnection and generation tariffs by January 1, 2028, assign transmission upgrade costs to connecting facilities, require disclosure of multi-jurisdiction duplicate applications, and impose a minimum ten-year early-termination fee framework for new transmission interconnection agreements entering from January 1, 2027. Oregon’s pending Pacific Power order and Victoria’s Action Plan rhyme with the same thesis. Continuity: NERC’s computational-load drafts still target a December 31 FERC filing at the 50 MW / 100 kV floor, and PJM’s Large Load ride-through proposal still eyes a November FERC filing.
Startup and Small Business Signal
Regulated-industry on-prem AI just cleared growth equity while the neoclouds raise billions. On September 22, Chicago-based Go.AI closed an $85 million Series A led by Updata Partners, with GFT Ventures and LAUNCH participating, bringing total funding to $90 million. Company framing: examiner-ready on-premises AI infrastructure for financial services, healthcare, aerospace and defense, and manufacturing; more than 200 customers; profitable; annual recurring revenue up more than eight times year over year. Fixed-fee stack inside the customer’s secure environment — not a hyperscale GPU cloud shell.
AMP Bottom Line
OpenAI equity can still clear an $11.1 billion junk book. Nscale can still raise $3.36 billion of pre-IPO convertibles against a nine-figure contracted backlog. CleanSpark can still settle $2.276 billion of campus notes. What is getting harder is pretending the power bill is someone else’s problem: Victoria wants new campuses to bring their own renewables and batteries, Oregon’s Pacific Power settlement would assign incremental generation costs to new data centers, and California has written ten-year termination and upgrade cost responsibility into statute ahead of 2028 tariffs. The AI factory is being priced on who can fund the model layer and who can deliver — and pay for — the megawatts underneath it.