South Korean president will meet Japanese leader ahead of summit with Trump
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Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
SoftBank's $500B AI Moonshot Hits Speed Bump--But Son Isn't Slowing Down
SoftBank (SOBKY) just pulled off a sharp pivot back to profitabilityand AI is doing the heavy lifting. The Japanese conglomerate posted a 421.82 billion ($2.9 billion) net profit for the fiscal first quarter, more than doubling analyst expectations. The Vision Fund alone delivered 451.39 billion in gains, driven by rising valuations in holdings like Coupang, Symbotic, and Swiggy. But the real momentum came from SoftBank's growing exposure to Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), where a $3 billion stake rode a 46% rally in the chipmaker's shares. Add in another $3 billion asset sale from T-Mobile US and the firm now has more ammunition to chase Masayoshi Son's next AI frontier. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 11 Warning Signs with SOBKY. That frontier? A sweeping, high-stakes plunge into artificial intelligence infrastructureled by the $500 billion Stargate data center initiative in the U.S., in partnership with OpenAI, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), and Abu Dhabi's MGX. Son is also pursuing a $6.5 billion acquisition of Ampere Computing and reportedly eyeing up to $30 billion in OpenAI funding. But execution isn't running on schedule. For the first time, SoftBank's CFO admitted that Stargate is delayed. Market volatility, U.S. trade policy uncertainties, and wavering AI hardware valuations have slowed the rollout. Still, SoftBank insists talks on its first Stargate project are about to beginand says it's now "all in" on AI across its entire operation. Even so, questions around funding firepower are starting to surface. SoftBank's loan-to-value stood at 17% as of June, but with Arm (NASDAQ:ARM) shares slipping and big-ticket investments stacking up, analysts see a potential breach of its 25% ceiling. Regulatory hurdles are also in play: the Ampere deal still awaits U.S. antitrust clearance, and the full OpenAI check may never be written unless OpenAI formally restructures into a for-profit entity. Despite all that, SoftBank shares just closed at a record highbuoyed by Trump's chip tariff push that could favor U.S.-based AI plays. It's a bold bet, but not without speed bumps. Investors are watching closely to see if Son can execute at scale without losing grip on the balance sheet. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bolivia presidential hopefuls make last push for votes
Bolivia's presidential candidates made a final push for votes on Wednesday ahead of elections on the weekend set to end 20 years of socialist rule. Two right-wing candidates are leading the race for the first time since 2005 as voters desert the ruling Movement Towards Socialism party, blamed for the country's deep economic crisis, ahead of Sunday's vote. Polls show center-right business tycoon Samuel Doria Medina and right-wing ex-president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga running neck-and-neck on around 20 percent each, with six other candidates trailing far behind. The two frontrunners wound up their campaigns with fanfares, street parades and packed rallies. Doria Medina, who owns Bolivia's Burger King franchise among other businesses, pledged shock therapy to pull the country back from the brink of default. Speaking in the predominantly Indigenous city of El Alto -- a longtime stronghold of leftist ex-president Evo Morales -- he vowed to restore dwindling supplies of dollars and fuel "within 100 days" through austerity measures. Jonathan Vega, a 25-year-old chef, told AFP he was counting on Doria Media to "restore stability." Bolivians are struggling through the country's worst crisis in a generation, marked by acute shortages of dollars, fuel and subsidized bread. A dramatic drop in gas exports has eaten into the country's foreign currency reserves, making it unable to import sufficient fuel for its needs. - Milei-style reforms - Doria Medina and Quiroga have both vowed to cut costly fuel subsidies, partly roll back Morales-era nationalizations and close loss-making public companies. Speaking in the city of La Paz, Quiroga said his first priority would be to tamp down inflation, which rose to 24.8 percent year-on-year in July, its highest level since at least 2008. The 65-year-old also threatened to close the central bank, accusing the outgoing government of using it as a "credit card," and promised to flood Bolivia's lithium-rich Andean high plains with tax-free zones to attract investment. Quiroga's vision of a "small state" has seen him compared with Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei. Alejandro Rios, a 23-year-old lawyer attending Quiroga's rally, said he believed Milei-style reforms were "the right thing for Bolivia, to get out of this crisis." The two main left-wing candidates, Senate president Andronico Rodriguez and his Movement Towards Socialism rival, former interior minister Eduardo del Castillo, are polling in the single digits. Their campaigns have been hobbled by a lack of support from Morales, who served three terms between 2006 and 2019 and attempted in vain to run for a fourth. Morales, 65, has called on his supporters to avenge his disqualification by spoiling their ballots. bur-cb/dl
Skift
21 minutes ago
- Skift
Tourism in India Can Offset U.S. Tariff Losses, But Needs Big Investment
India should make tourism a national growth engine, according to former G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, calling for at least INR 200 billion ($2.3 billion) to promote the country in global markets through a revamped 'Incredible India' campaign. 'A large country like India having a tourism budget of just INR 30 million ($361,000) is absurd,' Kant told CNBC-TV18, adding that a stronger tourism push could 'more than compensate' for the potential losses from proposed U.S. tariffs. The United States has suggested a 50% tariff on India in response to its imports of Russian oil. Kant, who spearheaded the original 'Incredible India' campaign and now sits on IndiGo's board as a non-executive director, sees this as a chance to offset the economic hit by unlocking tourism's full potential. 'This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring in radical reforms across sectors, make India more competitive, and use tourism as a growth engine,' he said. He add
