SoftBank posts third-quarter loss of US$2.4 billion

JAPANESE technology investor SoftBank Group booked a net loss of US$2.4 billion in the October-December quarter as valuations at its Vision Fund investment arm fell.

The loss will further raise questions about SoftBank’s plans for one of its most ambitious undertakings – a hefty investment in OpenAI.

Sources said in January that SoftBank was in talks to invest up to US$25 billion in the ChatGPT creator. Recent media reports have said that figure has grown to US$40 billion though some of that amount would later be syndicated out to other investors.

SoftBank has also committed to investing US$15 billion in Stargate – a venture with OpenAI and Oracle that will build AI data centre capacity in the United States and which has been backed by US President Donald Trump.

The third-quarter result compares to an LSEG consensus estimate of a net profit of 234 billion yen (S$2.06 billion) drawn from four analysts and a profit of 950 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

The Vision Fund unit posted an investment loss of 352.7 billion yen, breaking a run of two consecutive quarters in the black.

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Vision Fund 1 has had a gross gain of US$21.6 billion since its inception in 2017 while Vision Fund 2, which covers a broad suite of earlier-stage startups, has logged a US$22.2 billion loss since 2019. REUTERS