Tokyo, Thursday. SoftBank Group stock dropped 4.41% even after posting quarterly profit of 347.3 billion yen, nearly triple what analysts expected. Shares closed at 5,695 yen, down 263 yen from the previous session.
The problem? Investors looked past a 1.33 trillion yen gain on Intel holdings. Intel stock had surged from $44.13 to $139.63 during the quarter, a windfall that flowed through SoftBank's investment arm and reversed a small loss from the year prior.
Net sales climbed 10.9% to 2,019.6 billion yen. Total investment gains hit 1,859.4 billion yen for the three-month stretch. None of it mattered to the market.
The Vision Funds, once SoftBank's crown jewel, have become a drag. Segment income collapsed 98.8% year-over-year to just 5.4 billion yen. OpenAI, which had driven a $20 billion gain the prior quarter, posted zero movement this time around. The startup's valuation simply held flat from fiscal year-end.
ByteDance stepped up instead, contributing a $2.2 billion increase in fair value. But OpenAI remains SoftBank's wildcard. The firm plowed in $10 billion in April and another $10 billion in July. By October 2026, when the third tranche completes, cumulative OpenAI investment will reach $64.6 billion for a 13% ownership stake.
Arm and other AI computing bets are bleeding cash. The segment deepened its loss to 200.8 billion yen as expenses at Arm, Graphcore, and Ampere all climbed higher.
This article is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice.
