SoftBank's Balancing Act: From Osaka Battery Plants to a $65 Billion OpenAI Pledge

SoftBank launches Osaka battery JV, plans $10-20B bonds, cuts TSMC stake as NAV drops to ¥58.3T.

The Japanese conglomerate is quietly redrawing the boundaries of its artificial intelligence empire, and the blueprint now extends far beyond the server room. SoftBank Group has moved to establish a joint venture in Osaka with South Korean battery manufacturer Cosmos Lab and AI firm DeltaX, targeting production of large-format battery cells and energy storage systems. The facility is slated to begin manufacturing in the fiscal year ending March 2028, with mass production following a year later.

The energy play carries ambitious revenue targets: SoftBank expects the battery business to generate more than 100 billion yen (roughly $6.38 billion) in annual sales by fiscal 2030. The storage solutions are designed to power AI data centers and industrial applications, a segment that has grown increasingly critical as the electricity demands of artificial intelligence infrastructure surge.

A Funding Machine Running at Full Throttle

Behind these hardware ambitions sits a financing apparatus that is being stretched to its limits. Bloomberg has reported that SoftBank is in talks with investment banks over a bond issuance ranging between $10 billion and $20 billion, intended to refinance a $40 billion bridge loan tied to its OpenAI investment. Those bonds could hit the market in dollar and euro denominations as early as September 2026.

The company has also registered a record-breaking 1 trillion yen bond in its domestic market, with the coupon set to be fixed on September 4, 2026. According to projections compiled by GuruFocus, SoftBank's total investment in OpenAI is expected to reach approximately $65 billion by October 1, 2026, which would translate to a stake of roughly 13 percent in the AI company. The final tranche of $10 billion is scheduled for October 2026.

This dual-track financing — offshore bonds alongside a domestic issuance — underscores how aggressively SoftBank is leveraging its balance sheet to fund the AI bet. The company has also reaffirmed its $500 million commitment to the Stargate data center project and maintains its position of up to $35 billion in OpenAI.

Portfolio Shuffling and a Shrinking NAV

While the new investments grab headlines, SoftBank has been quietly rebalancing its existing holdings. A recent SEC filing reveals the group slashed its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 71.5 percent, retaining 565,000 shares valued at roughly $269.8 million.

The proceeds appear to be flowing elsewhere. SoftBank's Intel stake, held at an unchanged 87 million shares, saw its value balloon from $3.84 billion to $12.1 billion by the end of the second quarter. Smaller new positions were also established in Capital One Financial and Life360.

These shifts come at a delicate moment for the company's underlying value. The net asset value has slipped to approximately 58.3 trillion yen as of August 5, 2026, down from 72.3 trillion yen at the end of June, according to a report from Invezz. The decline reflects a broader correction in technology valuations — a reminder that the group's worth remains hostage to the very sector it is betting so heavily on.

The Neocloud Strategy and Japan's Infrastructure Gap

SoftBank's strategic repositioning extends beyond financial engineering. The Nikkei has reported that the company is pursuing a so-called "neocloud" strategy, aiming to roll out its own operating system architecture internationally. Domestically, SoftBank is pushing for regionally distributed AI processing to support physical AI applications.

The company appears to be targeting a gap in Japan's market: according to the Nikkei report, no domestic provider exists on the scale of CoreWeave, and SoftBank is positioning itself to fill that void. The battery joint venture and a separate AI infrastructure company set up with Roze AI both feed into this broader ecosystem — from chips to cloud to the power supply that keeps data centers humming.

Market Sentiment: Cautious but Not Panicked

The equity market's reaction to this sprawling expansion has been muted at best. Shares traded at €28.41 on Thursday, up 1.2 percent after closing Wednesday at €28.06. The weekly picture remains negative, with a decline of 1.7 percent, though the monthly view shows a gain of 1.8 percent. The relative strength index sits at 44.3, indicating neither overbought nor oversold conditions.

The secondary article's figures paint a slightly different short-term picture: a 30-day annualized volatility of 73 percent, a Wednesday close of €28.06 after a daily change of 1.4 percent, and a weekly decline of 2.9 percent, with an RSI of 42.7. The market capitalization stands at approximately €152.64 billion.

Those discrepancies aside, the broader message is consistent: investors are weighing the erosion in net asset value against the potential upside of the AI push, and for now, they appear willing to hold their ground. The possible acquisition of a majority stake in humanoid robot maker 1X Technologies — reportedly in talks at a valuation of around $6 billion, following a $23.5 million Series A2 round led by the OpenAI Startup Fund — would add yet another physical dimension to SoftBank's AI portfolio.

Whether the market will continue to tolerate this level of balance-sheet leverage depends on how convincingly SoftBank can translate its sprawling bets into actual returns. The Osaka battery plant won't generate revenue until the end of the decade, and the OpenAI investment won't reach its full scale until late 2026. Until then, the conglomerate's share price will likely remain a barometer of faith rather than fundamentals.