Key Points:
- SoftBank’s Vision Fund posted a $2.4 billion gain last quarter.
- Rising value in OpenAI offset losses from TikTok owner ByteDance.
- The company is shifting 60% of its assets toward AI investments.
- SoftBank sold Nvidia and T-Mobile shares to fund new projects.
SoftBank Group reported a $2.4 billion gain at its Vision Fund for the quarter ending in December. The Japanese tech giant says this profit happened largely because the value of its investment in OpenAI went up significantly. This success helped balance out money lost on other bets, including the Chinese ride-hailing app Didi and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
The company is betting its future on artificial intelligence. During a presentation on Thursday, Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto revealed that 60% of SoftBank’s assets now target “artificial superintelligence,” or ASI. This aligns with founder Masayoshi Son’s prediction that technology will soon become thousands of times smarter than humans.
SoftBank has poured more than $30 billion into ChatGPT developer OpenAI, giving it an 11% stake in the startup. Executives say this decision is paying off, with a $17 billion gain recorded between April and December. While OpenAI is reportedly raising a massive new funding round, SoftBank has not decided if it will invest more cash just yet.
Competition is heating up in the AI world. Rivals like Google and Anthropic are fighting for market share, with Anthropic openly criticizing OpenAI’s business tactics. Despite this, SoftBank remains confident. Goto stated that they believe OpenAI will lead the industry and drive future growth through sales, hardware, and ads.
To fund these expensive AI projects, the Japanese firm is selling off old assets. Last October, SoftBank sold its entire stake in Nvidia for over $5 billion. It also sold a large chunk of T-Mobile stock. This cash flow allows them to double down on their new AI strategy.
SoftBank also launched a new “AI Computing Segment” in its earnings report. This division includes the chip designer Arm, along with recent purchases Graphcore and Ampere. While this segment lost money recently due to hiring costs, the company views these chip investments as vital for future robots and self-driving cars.
