Home / Business and Economy / SoftBank's Profit Soars on OpenAI Investment
SoftBank's Profit Soars on OpenAI Investment
12 Feb
Summary
- SoftBank reported a net profit of 248.6 billion yen in the last quarter.
- The profit increase was significantly boosted by the rising valuation of its OpenAI investment.
- SoftBank has invested over $30 billion in OpenAI, holding an approximate 11% stake.
Japan's SoftBank Group announced a net profit of 248.6 billion yen for the October-December quarter, marking its fourth consecutive period of profitability. This result contrasts sharply with a net loss of 369 billion yen during the same period last year. The company's earnings have been significantly bolstered by the appreciated valuation of its investment in OpenAI.
In the nine months leading up to December, SoftBank's stake in OpenAI contributed a 2.8 trillion yen gain. The technology investment group has now allocated over $30 billion to OpenAI, acquiring an approximately 11% shareholding in what appears to be an "all-in" strategy amid the competitive landscape of large language models.
To finance these ventures, SoftBank has employed strategies such as asset sales, bond issuances, and loans secured against its holdings, including chip designer Arm. Previously, the company divested its $5.8 billion Nvidia stake and partially sold its T-Mobile shares between June and December last year. These financial maneuvers have raised investor concerns about SoftBank's capacity to continually fund OpenAI, especially as the AI company currently operates at a loss.
Despite OpenAI's initial perceived dominance in large language models, it is now navigating increasing operational costs for training and running its AI models. This comes amid heightened competition from major players like Alphabet, forcing OpenAI to negotiate rising expenses as it develops its technology.
