SOFTBANK’S $2B INTEL BET DELIVERS ¥1.33T QUARTERLY GAIN
SoftBank’s April-June net profit fell 18% YoY to ¥347.3B, but still beat the ¥148.4B consensus.
Total investment gains reached ¥1.85T, including a ¥1.33T gain on Intel after its shares more than tripled during the quarter. Vision Fund gains fell 65% to ¥255.7B, while OpenAI’s valuation remained unchanged.
SoftBank has now committed more than $64B to OpenAI for a stake of around 13%. CFO Yoshimitsu Goto defended the investment, saying OpenAI retains an “overwhelming first-mover advantage” among consumers.
SoftBank also plans to begin construction this year on its 10GW Ohio data center project and is in advanced talks with customers over long-term capacity leases. Goto dismissed AI overbuild concerns, pointing instead to an “overwhelming shortage” of computing capacity.
Source: Nikkei Asia