--- title: "SoftBank Loses $7 Billion as AI Data Centers Turn Out to Be Risky Investment" description: "The Japanese megabank posted a staggering loss for Q3, its first red quarter in nearly two years of business." date: "2026-11-12" modified: "2026-11-12" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins.md" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/softbank-billion-loss-ai-data-centers-financing" categories: - "Finance" - "Future Society" --- # SoftBank Loses $7 Billion as AI Data Centers Turn Out to Be Risky Investment ![SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son speaks during an event for enterprise customers.]() *Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images/Futurism* The AI data center boom is looking as shaky as ever. Nowhere is that more apparent than at the Japanese megafirm SoftBank — perhaps best known for bankrolling WeWork before its spectacular implosion — and which now seems to be standing on a financial snowpack that could collapse into an avalanche. SoftBank [backstopped OpenAI](), the lab behind ChatGPT, with over $60 billion in risky debt financing. As [the *Financial Times* reports](), that move has now dragged the bank into an ominous loss of $7 billion between July and September, the company's first quarterly loss in two years of business. According to the *FT*, at least $3.7 billion of the loss is likely attributable to a massive [OpenAI data center development]() in Ohio. SoftBank initially blamed that portion on financing for "existing and planned" data center projects there, before backtracking to say the losses are "completely unrelated" to any dealings in the buckeye state. Compare SoftBank's $7 billion overall drop to its profit of $2.17 billion the previous quarter, or its heady $15.64 billion profit over the third quarter of 2025, and it's clear the firm is currently hemorrhaging money to keep some AI dreams alive. Shares in the company have also plummeted by nearly 50 percent since June, the *FT* notes, as [ratings downgrades]() and [rising skepticism]() over the viability of the AI industry scare investors into safer corners of the market. In order to keep pumping money into AI powerlabs like OpenAI, SoftBank itself has started digging into junk bonds — high-risk debt, essentially — raising [over $11 billion]() in non-investment grade bonds in September. So on top of boasting perhaps one of the highest degrees of exposure to the AI bubble on the planet, the Japanese investment firm is now the world-record holder for the largest corporate junk bond offering ever made. With a foundation this unstable, it's no wonder SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son [calls the AI bubble a myth]() — because if it exists, his megabank is in mega trouble. **More on data centers:** *[Only One Town in America Voted in Favor to Building a New Data Center, and the Reason Why Is Bleak]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [Nvidia Stock Lurches Down as SoftBank Pulls Entire Investment]() - [SoftBank Is Investing in a Microchip to Make the Singularity a Reality]() - [Insiders at SoftBank Worry Their CEO Is Getting Conned by Sam Altman]() - [Softbank CEO Who’s Invested $64 Billion in OpenAI Says It’s “Blasphemy” to Mention the AI Bubble]() - [SoftBank CEO Says You’re Too Stupid to Understand What’s Going on If You Believe the AI Bubble Is Real]() - [OpenAI Asking for Tens of Billions in New Investment to “Fund Its Money-Losing business Operations”]() - [SoftBank CEO Promises “Super Artificial Intelligences” With IQ of 10,000 in 30 Years]() - [Dark Clouds Suddenly Gathering Over AI Industry]()