(May 13): SoftBank Group Corp reported a surge in quarterly profit due to valuation gains on its OpenAI investment, boosting confidence at the Japanese company to bet even more on the ChatGPT maker.
The gains on OpenAI outweighed lacklustre investment gains elsewhere in the Tokyo-based technology group’s portfolio while war in the Middle East roiled markets. That points to growing reliance on the US startup, which faces rising competition from Anthropic PBC and Google and is reportedly trailing its highest internal targets.
SoftBank earned a net income of ¥1.83 trillion (US$11.6 billion or $15 billion) in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with the average analyst estimate of ¥295.2 billion. The profit could be attributed entirely to its booking US$25 billion ($31.8 billion) in valuation gains on OpenAI in the quarter, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kirk Boodry.
Founder Masayoshi Son has been unwinding positions and raising SoftBank’s debt load to pay for an expanding list of bets on artificial intelligence. The company, which secured a US$40 billion bridge loan facility in March, has unfurled grandiose plans spanning hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of investments in data centres.
Since SoftBank’s first investment in OpenAI at a valuation of US$157 billion, the US startup’s valuation has surged to US$852 billion. SoftBank has committed to raising its total investment in OpenAI to US$64.6 billion by the end of the year.
“SoftBank’s history has been good in investment records and perhaps better than people sometimes allow,” said Richard Kaye, co-head of Japan equity strategy at Comgest Asset Management.
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But SoftBank’s business is supported by a range of other assets, including chip designer Arm Holdings plc and the Japanese telecom unit SoftBank Corp, Kaye said. SoftBank owns about 90% of Arm, whose stock rallied 38% during the March quarter.
“It’s very difficult for any of the global mega-tech companies to diversify their bets between competing players,” he said. “SoftBank is not really any different in that sense.”
SoftBank’s Vision Fund segment, which includes the company’s holdings in OpenAI, reported an investment gain of ¥3.08 trillion. Shares of SoftBank’s key public holdings, including Coupang Inc and Grab Holdings Ltd, slumped during the period. The vast majority of companies in SoftBank’s Vision Fund portfolio are privately held, hindering analysts’ ability to make estimates.
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Both Arm and SoftBank’s mobile unit — Japan’s third largest — are broadening their operations into AI hardware. Arm now plans to sell its own chips, while the wireless business plans to expand into neoclouds and manufacture battery cells geared for AI data centres.
SoftBank Group is preparing to create AI robotics company Roze for a possible US listing, Bloomberg has reported. Son has also held talks about unveiling an ambitious French AI data centre project with President Emmanuel Macron in coming weeks.
All the projects together would increase pressure on SoftBank’s finances at a time that the company is hitting resistance to its debt-raising abilities. SoftBank downsized plans for a US$10 billion margin loan backed by the OpenAI stake after facing hesitation from some creditors, Bloomberg reported.
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