Japanese technology investment giant SoftBank Group announced Wednesday it generated net earnings of 1.9 trillion yen, equivalent to $12.05 billion, during the January through March period.
This represents a significant jump from the company’s net earnings of 517 billion yen during the corresponding quarter in 2023.
The Tokyo-based firm has now achieved positive earnings for five straight quarters, with much of its success stemming from its substantial investment in artificial intelligence company OpenAI.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund division, which manages the company’s OpenAI holdings, reported investment gains totaling 3.1 trillion yen during the three-month period.
The increasing valuation of the company behind ChatGPT through several funding rounds in recent months has served as the main catalyst for SoftBank’s strong financial performance.
Looking ahead, SoftBank has committed an additional $30 billion to OpenAI through 2026, which would increase its total investment commitment to $64.4 billion in exchange for approximately 13% ownership of the AI company.
To fund these investments, the Japanese conglomerate has divested portions of its holdings in companies including T-Mobile and Nvidia, while also issuing bonds and securing loans using its semiconductor designer Arm and domestic telecom subsidiary SoftBank Corp as collateral.
