UPDATE 1 — SoftBank issues $11.1 billion in bonds in OpenAI financing push
(Adds filing details, context; paragraph 3) TOKYO, Sept 24 (Reuters) — Technology investor SoftBank Group has issued a total of $11.1 billion in dollar- and euro-denominated bonds, a filing showed on Thursday, as it looks to generate cash to continue its investments in artificial intelligence. SoftBank issued dollar-denominated senior notes of $1 billion at a 3-1/2-year term, $4.5 billion at 5-1/2 years and $4.5 billion at 7-1/2 years, the filing showed. The bonds pay interest rates of 8.625%, 9.25% and 9.75% respectively. It also issued two €500 million tranches of euro-denominated senior notes with terms of four and six years, yielding 7.125% and 8%, the filing showed. The bonds will be used to fund the final $10-billion tranche of $30 billion SoftBank committed to investing in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, taking its total investment to $64.6 billion when complete. This month it issued 1 trillion yen ($6.32 billion) in corporate bonds aimed at retail investors. ($1=158.2500 yen) (Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Clarence Fernandez) ((Anton.Bridge@thomsonreuters.com)