Workers on stage prepare for a news conference of SoftBank Group Corp. in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Toru Hanai | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SoftBank Group recorded a 1.9 billion yen ($12.9 million) investment gain in its technology investment fund Vision Fund in the company’s first fiscal quarter ended June, returning to profitability.
The Japanese giant also announced it would buy back up to 6.8% of the company’s outstanding shares, for up to 500 billion yen ($3.4 billion).
SoftBank posted a 159.77 billion yen increase in its Vision Fund last quarter. In the third quarter, SoftBank posted a 57.53 billion yen loss in its core technology investment arm.
SoftBank posted its first full-year growth since 2021 at Vision Fund in the fiscal year ending March benefiting from a rally in tech stocks and some key stocks.
The Vision Fund’s recent success is also largely due to The success of chip design company Arm’s initial public offering last yearof which SoftBank owns about 90% of the company.
However, SoftBank is once again facing a volatile public market. On Monday, SoftBank shared down nearly 19% in one day amid a sharper fall in Japanese stocks due to Interest rate hike from Bank of Japan last week.
Japan’s Key Indices recovered on Tuesday, however. But Global markets remain volatile as investors remain concerned about the global economic situation and high valuations partly driven by tech stocks.
SoftBank, which has been plagued by bad bets in recent years, is trying to position itself to investors as a key player in the artificial intelligence boom. Its management has highlighted its investments in companies like Arm and self-driving car startup Wayve as signs that the Japanese giant is ready to capitalize on AI developments.
Prominent SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, who has been out of the public eye for a while, has returned this year Communicate your vision for AI which he predicts will be 10,000 times smarter than humans in 10 years.
