SoftBank Group, which invests in artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous driving and other technology, posted its second consecutive quarterly profit
Japan’s SoftBank Group has managed to reduce its investment losses, but still remains in the red for the fiscal year.
The tech giant revealed on Monday that it had trimmed its losses for the fiscal year through March to about a quarter of what it was the previous year, as its investment losses declined. The Tokyo-based corporation saw an annual sales increase of 2.8%, reaching 6.76 trillion yen ($43billion). Losses for the fiscal year dropped to 227.6 billion yen ($1.5billion), a significant decrease from the 970 billion yen loss recorded the previous year.
By quarter, SoftBank Group, which invests in artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous driving and other technology, posted its second consecutive quarterly profit. For January-March, it reported a profit of 231 billion yen ($1.5billion), a stark contrast to the 57.6 billion yen loss from a year earlier.
This marks two profitable quarters following four consecutive quarters of losses. Investment losses for the fiscal year included Alibaba, a Chinese technology company with e-commerce, cloud computing and digital media operations, which offset gains from its holdings in T-Mobile.
Despite the surge in value of British semiconductor and software design company Arm, a SoftBank subsidiary, over recent months, this wasn’t reflected in the earnings results. Arm was listed on the Nasdaq last year. SoftBank’s Vision Fund has seen a dip in the value of some of its investments, including WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year.
However, these losses have been balanced out by gains from other holdings such as ByteDance, the Chinese firm behind the popular video-sharing app TikTok. The company, founded and led by billionaire Masayoshi Son, also has stakes in Yahoo Japan and Line. Son is set to outline his vision for the future of AI at a shareholders’ meeting later this year, despite missing the earnings presentation.
When quizzed about Son’s absence, Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto explained that Son was preoccupied with new initiatives in what the company refers to as “the AI age.” In total, since their inception, SoftBank Vision Fund 1 has recorded a gain of $16.7billion, while SVF2 has suffered a loss of $19.3billion. Both funds posted losses for the fiscal year ending in March.
Goto emphasised that the initial challenging years for Vision Fund investments are now behind them, and stability is anticipated moving forward. “The performance will improve in a big way,” he said.
