SoftBank logged a 1.15 trillion Japanese yen (around $7.8 billion) profit for the year ending in March—its first annual profit since 2020—but a 115 billion yen loss within its Vision Fund segment overshadowed the Japanese tech giant’s better-than-expected results.
Overall, the Vision Funds reported a top-line annual investment gain of 434.9 billion yen, down 40% from the previous year.
Much of the gain came via SoftBank’s more mature investments in Vision Fund l, which saw a 1.02 trillion yen gain. Recoveries in public equities mainly drove this performance.
The fund includes investments such as Coupang, a US-listed ecommerce company founded in South Korea that benefited from the broader equity market rebound, and TikTok operator ByteDance, which saw its annual revenue jump by nearly a third last year.
The biggest loss came from earlier-stage investments in Vision Fund 2, which posted a $3.6 billion loss. The fund suffered due to portfolio markdowns for Indian startups Ola Electric, an e-mobility company, and food delivery startup Swiggy. These declines reflect broader headwinds in late-stage VC portfolios.
Market uncertainty caused by US trade policy has also hampered exits: Swedish buy-now-pay-later startup Klarna and Indian hotel chain Oyo have both delayed IPOs.
AI ambitions
Despite headwinds in its SVF2 portfolio, SoftBank continues to invest heavily in AI development, having committed up to $30 billion in follow-on investments in OpenAI and ecosystem infrastructure.
OpenAI also raised a record-breaking $40 billion in March. Also in March, SoftBank agreed to buy semiconductor design company Ampere for $6.5 billion.
Earlier in the year, SoftBank partnered with OpenAI and Oracle to launch Stargate, an AI infrastructure initiative based in the US. The group plans to deploy an initial $100 billion, with a goal of reaching $500 billion over four years.
That said, SoftBank’s investment in OpenAI faced new uncertainty earlier this month when the generative AI company said it would continue to be governed by its nonprofit board following a corporate restructuring.
The move potentially derails plans to become a for-profit business, limiting future monetization opportunities for investors such as SoftBank.
Learn about our editorial standards.
