SoftBank Closes $10 Billion OpenAI Third Tranche as Bonds Clear and Behind-the-Meter Campuses Scale
SoftBank Group executes the final $10 billion OpenAI follow-on tranche on October 1 — completing a $30 billion follow-on, lifting cumulative investment to $64.6 billion and ownership to about 13 percent, funded with roughly $11.1 billion of senior notes — as JERA, Dell, and RHAELM ink an MoU for a behind-the-meter Chiba campus of up to 400 megawatts expecting more than $15 billion of capital, Broadcom’s IPO-filing commitment to lend Anthropic up to $42 billion for chip leases surfaces, the Senate rejects Ratepayer Protection Act cloture 57-43, and Amazon locks a 20-year Calvert Cliffs nuclear offtake.
Today’s Signals
- SoftBank OpenAI third tranche – Oct 1; $10.0B via Vision Fund 2; completes $30B follow-on; cumulative $64.6B; ~13% ownership; funded with ~$11.1B notes; $10B bridge cancelled Sep 30.
- JERA x Dell x RHAELM MoU – Oct 1; Chiba BTM AI campus up to 400 MW; capital eyed >$15B; ops ~2028; Apollo intended financing partner — MoU, not closed EPC or live MW.
- Broadcom x Anthropic financing – Oct 1 IPO filing; Broadcom to lend up to $42B for chip leases; ~1/3 of $125.2B five-year TPU lease; convertible; notes not expected before IPO — not a closed draw.
- Senate H.R.9340 cloture rejected – Sep 30 Vote 254; 57-43 (60 needed); House had passed ~417-3; Ratepayer Protection Act stalled — politics, not enacted law.
- Amazon x Constellation Calvert Cliffs – Sep 30; 20-year PPA; 690 MW incl ~190 MW uprate (2030-2032); >$3B Maryland investment; power to PJM plus 13-state retail supply.
The Big Story
Yesterday SoftBank’s bond print was still a framed funding path. Today the equity check cleared. On October 1, SoftBank Group executed the third and final tranche of its February 2026 follow-on investment in OpenAI Group PBC via SoftBank Vision Fund 2 — USD 10.0 billion — completing the USD 30.0 billion follow-on. Cumulative OpenAI investment is now USD 64.6 billion; ownership is approximately 13 percent. The tranche was funded with proceeds from the roughly USD 11.1 billion foreign-currency senior notes announced September 24, and effective September 30 SoftBank canceled the remaining USD 10.0 billion undrawn under its March 2026 USD 40.0 billion bridge. The overnight companion is co-located power: JERA, Dell, and RHAELM signed an MoU for a behind-the-meter Chiba campus of up to 400 megawatts expecting more than USD 15 billion of capital, with operations targeted around 2028 — MoU math, not a live rack. Model-company capital cleared the high-coupon bond path; the factory still waits on megawatts that do not queue.
AI
Frontier labs are financing silicon with the chip vendor’s balance sheet in the stack. SoftBank’s completed OpenAI tranche locks a USD 64.6 billion cumulative stake at roughly 13 percent after three USD 10 billion follow-on checks. Reuters reporting on Anthropic’s IPO prospectus — syndicated October 1 — says Broadcom has agreed to lend Anthropic up to USD 42 billion for infrastructure and chip leases, potentially about one-third of a USD 125.2 billion five-year TPU lease on the Google-Broadcom stack. Anthropic does not expect those convertible notes sold before the IPO and flags supplier-financier conflicts — treat USD 42 billion as a disclosed facility, not a closed draw. Firmus-Meta Southeast Asia GPU agreements and Helix after Samsung’s USD 1 billion equity still lack primary first-campus megawatt disclosure.
Money
High-coupon credit is clearing against AI equity and GPU collateral on the same calendar. SoftBank’s roughly USD 11.1 billion notes — dollar coupons 8.625 to 9.750 percent, euro coupons 7.125 to 8.000 percent, rated BB+ — funded the OpenAI tranche and enabled the bridge cancel. Sharon AI on October 1 closed an inaugural USD 356 million senior secured GPU-backed SPV facility at a fixed 9.95 percent, secured against accelerators and contract cash flows toward more than 68,000 NVIDIA GPUs by mid-2027. CleanSpark closed USD 2.276 billion of 7.875 percent senior secured notes due 2031 on September 25. Solaris’s upsized USD 1.25 billion of 7.000 percent notes due 2032 remain expected to close October 1 — no separate closing confirmation at morning Central cutoff. Nscale’s NVIDIA USD 1 billion convertible inside its USD 3.36 billion package is still eyed for mid-November.
Energy & Power
Power is shipping next to the rack — or as grid offtake when co-location politics fail. JERA’s Chiba MoU with Dell and RHAELM is the cleanest overnight factory-plus-generation print: up to 400 megawatts behind the meter from an operating thermal station, Apollo as intended financing partner for RHAELM. Label it MoU and expected capital, not commissioned capacity. Amazon and Constellation’s September 30 Calvert Cliffs deal is the other path: a 20-year agreement covering 690 megawatts including a roughly 190 megawatt uprate online 2030 to 2032, more than USD 3 billion of Maryland investment, and related retail supply across 13-state PJM — with every megawatt still flowing to the regional grid.
Government Power
Ratepayer politics hit the cloture wall and bounced. On September 30 the Senate rejected cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, 57-43 — short of 60 — after the House passed roughly 417-3. The bill would have set a federal PURPA standard so large-load customers, including data centers, face recovery of full incremental upgrade costs; competing GRID Savings Act framing remains. Procedural failure is a calendar stall, not a veto of cost-causation. Continuity: the EU’s September 21 Delegated Regulation for a common Union A-to-G data-centre sustainability label remains under scrutiny, with first labels eyed August 15, 2027; PJM Large Computational Load reforms still cluster on a November FERC clock.
Startup and Small Business Signal
Small and mid-cap neoclouds win when GPUs become collateral. Sharon AI’s USD 356 million GPU-backed SPV at 9.95 percent is the October 1 proof point — silicon and contract cash flows securing institutional private credit, with more than USD 2.6 billion of combined debt and equity cited over ten months and a stated offtake TCV above USD 8.8 billion that remains company color. General Compute’s Cerebras channel and Bitdeer’s Johor pre-sell still show the pattern: lenders finance the floor when offtake is the collateral.
AMP Bottom Line
SoftBank just wired the final USD 10 billion OpenAI tranche — USD 64.6 billion cumulative, roughly 13 percent ownership — off a roughly USD 11.1 billion high-coupon note print and a canceled bridge. JERA is productizing behind-the-meter Japan AI factories at up to 400 megawatts and more than USD 15 billion of expected Chiba capital with Dell and RHAELM. Broadcom’s disclosed readiness to lend Anthropic up to USD 42 billion against a USD 125.2 billion TPU lease shows chip vendors financing their own demand, Sharon AI cleared USD 356 million of GPU SPV debt at 9.95 percent, and Amazon is buying Calvert Cliffs nuclear into PJM. Washington failed cloture on ratepayer cost-shifting 57-43. The AI factory is priced on who can finish the equity check, who can borrow against the accelerator, and who still owns the interconnection clock.