SoftBank Group Corp. on Wednesday priced a ¥90 billion ($550 million) bond offering sold to institutional investors as the company broadens its funding sources at home and abroad to pay for its massive investments in artificial intelligence.

Some strategists see a boost to assets, while others were sceptical of a sustained rally, following Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama’s comments Friday encouraging pension funds, including the massive Government Pension Investment Fund, to increase investment in domestic financial assets. Here’s what strategists are saying:

Lloyds Banking Group Plc became the latest borrower to sell bonds in the booming Samurai market, where issuance has reached the highest level since fiscal year 2015 amid strong demand from yield-seeking investors.

Japan’s major banks are set for their busiest fiscal year in over a decade for issuing a special category of bonds that will finance higher capital requirements.

Renault SA priced its second-largest Samurai bond offering ever, as heightened volatility in government bond markets fueled investor appetite for relatively higher-yielding but stable assets from companies like the French automaker.

NTT Finance has postponed a planned yen-denominated corporate bond sale until early June or later amid a surge in Japanese government bond yields.

Alphabet Inc. sold ¥576.5 billion ($3.6 billion) of bonds in the biggest ever yen deal by a non-Japanese company as competition to fund data centers and AI infrastructure intensifies.

Alphabet Inc. is planning to issue yen bonds for the first time in a move that may help fund investments as artificial intelligence competition intensifies.

Japanese borrowers are selling record amounts of euro-denominated bonds in one of the most prominent examples of global companies scaling back their reliance on the dollar.

Market strategists said Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda refraining from giving a decisive signal about the timing of a rate hike indicated that the BOJ may not be as hawkish as its split vote suggested.

Indonesia raised ¥172.1 billion ($1.1 billion) in its biggest Samurai bond sale in two years as strong investor demand for its credit outweighed concerns about budgetary pressures due to the Middle East war.

Corporate bond issuance in Japan is poised to breach a record this year on growing funding demand for mergers and acquisitions as the economy continues to move away from three decades of deflation.

The number of issuers dropping Mizuho Securities Co. as underwriter of their bond deals continues to grow after a securities watchdog began investigating the firm.

Poland returned to the Samurai market after stable conditions in Japanese government bond yields let it tap investors looking for bigger returns than they can get from domestic issuers.

Subaru Corp. plans to buy back as much as roughly ¥30 billion ($194 million) of outstanding corporate bonds to reduce its debt, the company said.

Bankers expect another blockbuster year for sales of yen-denominated corporate debt from Japanese companies following the record tally of bonds issued in 2025.

SoftBank Group Corp. will raise about ¥500 billion ($3.2 billion) from retail investors at a coupon of 3.98% — the highest on a yen-denominated senior bond from the company in more than 15 years.

SoftBank Corp. priced ¥46 billion ($292 million) in bonds on Friday, bringing its already record issuance this year to around ¥400 billion.