SoftBank reported a fiscal second-quarter net loss of 1.12 trillion yen ($7 billion) on Tuesday, as investment losses and higher financing costs weighed on earnings.
Shares of the Japanese investment giant closed 13.9% higher on Tuesday. The gains came as Asian technology stocks, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, rose following an overnight rebound on Wall Street.
Here's how SoftBank fared in the fiscal second quarter:
- Net loss of 1.12 trillion yen in the quarter compared with a net profit of 2.5 trillion yen a year earlier.
- Revenue stood at 2.22 trillion yen in the quarter, compared with LSEG estimates of 2.02 trillion yen.
Revenue rose 13.3% in the six months ended Sept. 30, supported by growth in telecommunications and AI computing businesses. The company said its SoftBank segment recorded higher sales across all businesses, while revenue at its AI computing segment increased.
SoftBank also recorded a 597.2 billion yen loss in the six-month period due to changes in procurement plans for power generation equipment for AI data center projects in the U.S.
The company's Vision Fund segment swung to a loss of 81.58 billion yen in the fiscal second quarter, compared with a profit of 2.38 trillion yen a year earlier. Vision Fund 1 recorded an investment loss of $20 million in the quarter, despite a $1.3 billion gain on ByteDance, as shares of publicly traded portfolio companies, including Coupang and Grab, declined.
The Vision Funds segment recorded investment gains of 85.45 billion yen, down sharply from 2.81 trillion yen in the year-earlier period. Vision Fund 2 posted investment gains of 89.26 billion yen, while Vision Fund 1 recorded a loss of 3.86 billion yen on its investments.
As of the end of September, SoftBank's cumulative investment in OpenAI stood at $54.6 billion, with a fair value of $99.6 billion and a cumulative investment gain of $45 billion, according to the company.
Ahead of its earnings release, SoftBank Group announced on Monday plans with Grab and Malaysia's PETROS to commit a combined $1.85 billion in initial capital to develop AI infrastructure in Malaysia, with a long-term target of at least five gigawatts of AI computing capacity.
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