SoftBank Group is racing to close a $22.5bn funding commitment ‌to OpenAI by year-end through an array of cash-raising schemes, including a sale of some investments, and could tap its undrawn ‌margin loans borrowed against its valuable ownership in ‍chip firm Arm Holdings, sources said.The "all-in" bet on OpenAI is among the biggest yet by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, as the Japanese billionaire seeks to improve his firm's position in the ⁠race for artificial intelligence. To come up with the money, Son ⁠has already sold SoftBank's entire $5.8bn stake in AI chip leader Nvidia, offloaded $4.8bn of its T-Mobile US stake, and slashed staff.Son has slowed ‍most other dealmaking at SoftBank's Vision Fund to a crawl, and any deal above $50mn now requires his explicit approval, two of the sources told Reuters. Son's firm is working to take public its payments app operator, PayPay. The initial public offering, originally expected this month, was pushed back due to the 43-day-long US government shutdown, which ended in November.PayPay's market debut, likely to raise more than $20bn, is now expected in the first quarter of next year, according to one direct source and another person familiar with the efforts.The Japanese conglomerate is also looking to cash out some of its holdings in Didi Global, the operator of China’s dominant ride-hailing platform, which is looking to list its shares ‌in Hong Kong after a regulatory crackdown forced it to delist in the US in 2021, a source with direct knowledge said. Investment managers at SoftBank's Vision Fund are being directed toward the OpenAI deal, two of the above sources said.SoftBank's scramble to marshal funds offers a window into the strain faced even by ‍the world's biggest dealmakers as they scramble to finance ⁠ambitious AI data centre projects ‌worth hundreds of billions of dollars.SoftBank declined to comment.OpenAI has not yet received the remaining funding, but expects the money to come in by the end of 2025, as stipulated in the contract, sources said.SoftBank has multiple sources of capital it could tap, including margin loans, cash on its balance sheet, stakes in listed companies, and corporate bonds or bridge loans, sources said. Son has strong reasons to draw on a range of funding mechanisms to fulfil those obligations.SoftBank secured a deal to invest in OpenAI at a $300bn valuation in April. Since then, the valuation of OpenAI has risen dramatically and the company is in talks to raise additional funding from investors, including Amazon, tripling its valuation to close to $900 billion, one of the sources added, which would give SoftBank a significant paper gain once the transaction is completed.A major pool of capital for SoftBank is its undrawn capacity of margin loans borrowed against its ownership of British semiconductor and software design company Arm Holdings. SoftBank recently expanded its margin loan capacity by $6.5bn, bringing the total undrawn capacity to $11.5bn. Arm’s stock ​has since tripled from its IPO price, providing SoftBank with ‌additional collateral headroom to expand its borrowing capacity.SoftBank reported parent-level cash of 4.2tn yen ($27.16bn) as of September 30. The group still owns about 4% of T-Mobile US, remaining the wireless carrier’s second-largest ⁠shareholder, a stake worth roughly $11bn at the end of September, ‍according to LSEG data. Despite investing at a less active pace, it has continued to back AI startups such as Sierra and Skild AI.Both OpenAI and SoftBank are investors in Stargate, a $500bn initiative to build AI data centres for training and inference that executives say is crucial to the US government's ambitions to keep ahead of China in AI.The rush to build data centres has also prompted tech giants including Meta Platforms to commit unprecedented sums to these buildouts - which need chips, power, cooling, and servers - and they have brought in deep-pocketed partners to spread the risk.Their hefty ​capital outlays have sparked concerns about what happens if the investments fail to bring commensurate returns, raising the spectre of an "AI bubble" bursting. SoftBank promised in April to invest up to $30bn in OpenAI - $10bn of which the startup would receive the same month. The rest of the payment was contingent on the AI startup transitioning to a for-profit corporation by the end of the year, an ambitious feat that OpenAI achieved in October.The new funding is crucial for covering OpenAI’s rising costs to train and run its AI models as competition from Alphabet's Google ratchets up. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees recently that the company is now entering a "code red” phase to improve ChatGPT - delaying other product rollouts to fend off the momentum behind Google’s Gemini.In October, Altman said OpenAI aimed to build 30 gigawatts of computing capacity for $1.4tn. He said he ultimately wants OpenAI to add ⁠1 gigawatt of compute every week - an enormous target given that each gigawatt currently comes with a capital cost of more than $40bn.

Bankrupt Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc is in revived discussions to merge with Frontier Group Holdings, people familiar with the matter said, in a deal that could rescue the deep-discount airline from insolvency at a time of stiff competition from larger US carriers.A transaction could be announced as soon as this month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. The discussions are ongoing and could end without a deal taking place, they said.Shares in Frontier rose about 10% in US post-market trading after Bloomberg’s report. Spirit was unchanged and closed on Tuesday at 20 cents in regular trading.A representative for Spirit said it doesn’t comment on rumours and speculation. Frontier declined to comment.A merger between the airlines would mark a significant step for Spirit, which filed its second bankruptcy in less than a year in August. A tie-up would also be an acknowledgment that the pioneering deep-discount carriers need greater heft to compete in the current industry environment. The basic economy fares and strong networks of major carriers such as United Airlines Holdings Inc. have made it harder for traditional discounters to compete.A combined Spirit-Frontier stands to become the fifth-largest airline in the US based on miles flown by paying passengers, moving ahead of JetBlue Airways Corp and Alaska Air Group Inc, according to government data through September.Spirit has been buffeted by a bruising year for US aviation, which included a government shutdown, trade feuds and network disruptions. The discussions are taking place as Frontier abruptly replaced its longtime leader and Chief Executive Officer Barry Biffle.Frontier executives have pushed for years for a combination of the two carriers, which once specialised in offering heavily discounted ticket prices while charging travellers for anything else — including printed boarding passes and in-flight water. Both have recently started offering more upscale options in a bid to expand their customer base.A merger would help Spirit find a credible exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it burns cash and add about 100 planes to Frontier’s fleet at better lease rates than a year ago, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Francois Duflot and George Ferguson wrote in a note.“Yet Frontier’s priority is to boost yields, and its competitive challenge isn’t Spirit — it’s United,” according to the note.Biffle, who ran Frontier for about a decade, said in August he expected the airline to be the last of the ultra-low-cost carriers standing. Both operators have struggled to keep up with legacy carriers Delta Air Lines Inc and United as consumer sentiment shifts toward full-service flights.At its heyday in the 2010s, Spirit rose to prominence with cheap ticket prices, shock marketing tactics and optional add-ons — including its infamous carry-on bag fee, an industry first. The carrier made it all work by running an extremely lean operation. It saved money by cramming passengers into one-size-fits-all planes with non-reclining seats and charging extra for anything and everything.Since then, the carrier has been facing stubbornly higher costs after the pandemic upended its ability to operate as a bargain-bin business. Earlier this year, Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, marking the failure of an earlier restructuring that cut about $795mn in debt from its balance sheet and required bondholders to inject additional capital.Florida-based Spirit has been taking steps to reduce labour costs as part of the restructuring.In November, Spirit announced 150 job cuts across corporate and operational roles. Earlier this year, it furloughed about 1,800 flight attendants and at least 270 pilots.Spirit employed roughly 12,800 people at the time of its first bankruptcy filing in November 2024 to restructure about $1.6bn in debt.Spirit rejected an 11th-hour Frontier offer in January, following its first bankruptcy filing. The $2.2bn proposal was “inadequate and unactionable”, Spirit said at that time.