Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief govt officer of SoftBank Group Corp., speaks on the SoftBank World occasion in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SoftBank Group on Thursday reported fiscal first-quarter profit that topped expectations, pushed by good points in its Vision Fund tech funding arm.
The Japanese large reported 421.8 billion yen ($2.87 billion) within the quarter ended June, versus 127.6 billion yen anticipated, in accordance to LSEG consensus estimates. It is the second straight quarter of profit for SoftBank. The firm reported a 174.28 billion yen loss in the identical interval final yr.
In the fiscal first quarter, SoftBank stated the worth of its Vision Funds rose $4.8 billion. It is the most important gain in worth for the Vision Fund because the June quarter of 2021.
Profit for the Vision Funds section, which takes into consideration different elements like bills, hit 451.4 billion yen within the quarter, versus a loss in the identical interval final yr.
SoftBank Group shares hit a document excessive on Thursday, forward of earnings. The inventory is up greater than 36% this yr, whereas the corporate has added almost $37 billion to its market capitalization.
OpenAI guess
SoftBank has been on spending spree associated to AI. The Japanese large is leading a $40 billion funding round into ChatGPT developer OpenAI and it’s at the moment ready for its $6.5 proposed acquisition of AI chip firm Ampere Computing to shut.
For OpenAI, SoftBank stated that an preliminary $10 billion has been made by SoftBank and different traders. The remaining $30 billion funding will happen by December.
OpenAI is in talks with traders a couple of potential inventory sale, with shares to be bought by present and former workers, CNBC reported on Wednesday. SoftBank won’t purchase any of these shares, an individual conversant in the matter, advised CNBC on Thursday.
IPO pipeline
The Vision Fund efficiency can be welcomed by traders hoping to see these huge AI bets begin to repay.
SoftBank stated that the rise of the worth of the Vision Fund was helped by good points at public corporations corresponding to ride-hailing agency Grab, in addition to Indian meals supply agency Swiggy. The efficiency was additionally aided by personal investments in a few of corporations in India by which the fund has a place.
SoftBank expects corporations in its portfolio — together with PayPay, fintech large Klarna and Indian eyewear retailer Lenskart — to go public this yr, the individual conversant in the matter stated. Travel app Klook might file for an IPO within the U.S. within the coming weeks, the individual stated.
Meanwhile, SoftBank is a key firm within the large $500 billion Stargate undertaking within the U.S. that goals to construct information facilities and AI infrastructure within the nation. Investors are ready for particulars on how SoftBank plans to fund this spending.
In May, SoftBank posted its first annual profit in 4 years for the fiscal yr ended March, helped by good points in SoftBank’s older investments in Alibaba, T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom.
In the June quarter, SoftBank reported a 256.55 billion yen funding loss for its different holdings, which weighed on the group’s general profit. The Japanese agency stated it posted an funding loss on the sale of shares of T-Mobile and Alibaba, which was partially offset by a gain on shares of semiconductor large Nvidia.
SoftBank stated on Thursday that it bought 13 million shares of T-Mobile in August for $3 billion.
Meanwhile Arm, the chip designer that’s majority-owned by SoftBank, contributed a 8.66 billion yen loss to the Japanese firm. SoftBank attributed this to enhance analysis and improvement bills, which led to investments rising sooner than revenues.