Agility Robotics Goes Public in $2.5B SPAC Deal, Becoming First US-Listed Pure-Play Humanoid Maker•Google Delays Gemini 3.5 Pro to July 17 for Ground-Up Architectural Rebuild•ICML 2026 Wraps in Seoul: Record 24,000 Submissions, Agentic AI Everywhere, and a Peer-Review Reckoning•Twelve Deals in Eighteen Months: Why Ant Group Is Buying Into the Robot Future•From 'Best Model Wins' to 'Best Fit Wins': The Frontier AI Glut Is Rewriting the Race•Humanoid Robots Hit the Public Markets — and the Hype Meets Its First Earnings Test•Smart Glasses Maker Even Realities Hits $1B Valuation With $150M Round Led by Meituan and Tencent•Tripo AI Raises $150M Series A3 as 3D Foundation Models Push Toward Interactive Worlds•Agility Robotics Goes Public in $2.5B SPAC Deal, Becoming First US-Listed Pure-Play Humanoid Maker•Google Delays Gemini 3.5 Pro to July 17 for Ground-Up Architectural Rebuild•ICML 2026 Wraps in Seoul: Record 24,000 Submissions, Agentic AI Everywhere, and a Peer-Review Reckoning•Twelve Deals in Eighteen Months: Why Ant Group Is Buying Into the Robot Future•From 'Best Model Wins' to 'Best Fit Wins': The Frontier AI Glut Is Rewriting the Race•Humanoid Robots Hit the Public Markets — and the Hype Meets Its First Earnings Test•Smart Glasses Maker Even Realities Hits $1B Valuation With $150M Round Led by Meituan and Tencent•Tripo AI Raises $150M Series A3 as 3D Foundation Models Push Toward Interactive Worlds•Agility Robotics Goes Public in $2.5B SPAC Deal, Becoming First US-Listed Pure-Play Humanoid Maker•Google Delays Gemini 3.5 Pro to July 17 for Ground-Up Architectural Rebuild•ICML 2026 Wraps in Seoul: Record 24,000 Submissions, Agentic AI Everywhere, and a Peer-Review Reckoning•Twelve Deals in Eighteen Months: Why Ant Group Is Buying Into the Robot Future•From 'Best Model Wins' to 'Best Fit Wins': The Frontier AI Glut Is Rewriting the Race•Humanoid Robots Hit the Public Markets — and the Hype Meets Its First Earnings Test•Smart Glasses Maker Even Realities Hits $1B Valuation With $150M Round Led by Meituan and Tencent•Tripo AI Raises $150M Series A3 as 3D Foundation Models Push Toward Interactive Worlds•

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Brief

SoftBank Revives $10 Billion OpenAI-Backed Loan With a Sweetener for Lenders

The Japanese group returned to the negotiating table with a corporate guarantee, after banks balked at accepting shares in the privately held ChatGPT maker as sole collateral.

M

Maya SantosSenior Reporter

July 7, 20262 min read

SoftBank has resumed negotiations for a $10 billion loan backed by its stake in OpenAI, reviving a financing plan central to its aggressive AI investment strategy, according to a Reuters report. The news lifted SoftBank shares in Tokyo.

Why it stalled: Earlier talks broke down because a consortium of lenders — including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Mizuho — was reluctant to accept shares in the privately held ChatGPT developer as the sole collateral.

The new sweetener: SoftBank is now offering a corporate guarantee, allowing lenders to seek repayment from the company itself if the pledged OpenAI stake proves insufficient. The financing would take the form of a margin loan with a projected two-year term and a one-year extension option.

The bigger picture: SoftBank has committed more than $60 billion to OpenAI and related infrastructure, including the Stargate data-center venture, and is increasingly leaning on debt and asset-backed financing to fund those bets. It also faces a March 2027 deadline to repay a $40 billion bridge loan tied to its OpenAI investment.

The episode is a window into how the AI buildout is straining even the deepest pockets. As valuations balloon and IPOs slip, the industry's biggest backers are engineering ever more elaborate financing to keep the capital flowing — and asking lenders to take on risk secured by stakes in companies that aren't yet public.

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