According to Kawai, Panasonic is seeking to raise up to $3.86 billion in corporate bonds to push forwards its efforts at the Tesla Gigfactory.

Panasonic hopes that by raising the additional funds, it'll be able to keep up with Tesla's aggressive pace to bring the Model 3 to production by mid- to late 2017.

Quoting Kawai:

"In the near term, strategic investment (from the money raised) would be mostly in Tesla's Gigafactory. There is a need to speed up investment."

Tesla itself has recently increased the workforce at the Gigfactory as it races to stay on track for its own ambitious goals.