Japan's SoftBank racks up huge profit gains with lift from lucrative AI investments

TOKYO — Japanese technology investor Softbank Group Corp. reported Wednesday that profits for the fiscal year through March zoomed by nearly five-fold from the previous year as its AI investments paid off.

The Tokyo-based company recorded an annual profit of 5 trillion yen ($32 billion), far greater than the 1.15 trillion yen profit racked up the previous year.

Sales climbed nearly 8% on-year to nearly 7.8 trillion yen ($50 billion) from 7.2 trillion yen, the company said in a statement.

Among its most lucrative investments was OpenAI, in which Softbank has invested $34.6 billion, recording gains of $45 billion.

SoftBank also invests in U.S. AI company Nvidia, German mobile and internet provider Deutsche Telekom and British semiconductor manufacturer Arm. It also is behind the humanoid robot Pepper.

SoftBank said it got an additional lift from the initial public offering of PayPay, a popular mobile-payment application in Japan, which allows users to make quick, cashless payments using QR codes.

Gains from holdings in Intel Corp. offset the minus from those in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Such mixed picture results are typical for SoftBank, which began early in investing in technology for a Japanese company and now oversees a sprawling scope of businesses through what it calls Vision Funds.

SoftBank was founded more than four decades ago by Masayoshi Son, the company's chief executive and chairman, who is a University of California graduate and now a billionaire widely considered a pioneer in Japan's technology sector.

Softbank recently started a battery business in Japan to build next-generation electric power infrastructure in anticipation of growing electricity demand driven by AI use.

The company also is working with Toppan, a Japanese printing, communications, security and packaging company, to develop lightweight, durable “skin” material for aircraft wings that is set to be used for commercial services in about three years.

SoftBank Group does not provide earnings forecasts.