Investors offered more than $20 billion for an $11 billion junk bond sale planned by SoftBank. The preliminary interest represents roughly 1.8 times the offering size, which consists of $10 billion in dollar bonds and €1 billion in euro notes. SoftBank intends to use the proceeds to support its nearly $65 billion total commitment to OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. The company has no current plans to increase the size of the issuance despite the high level of investor demand.

The longest dollar tranche carries yields approaching 10%, a range that represents a high for comparable debt issued by the conglomerate. These costs reflect the risk profile of the junk rated securities used to finance the AI investment strategy of founder Masayoshi Son. This total issuance ranks among the largest junk bond sales by a single company if completed at the planned size.