Latest news with #HidekiYasuda
Japan Today
13-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
SoftBank posts ¥1.15 tril annual net profit
SoftBank Group has been actively investing in AI under its flamboyant founder and CEO Masayoshi Son (R) Japanese tech investor SoftBank Group, a major player in the U.S. Stargate artificial intelligence drive, on Tuesday posted a bumper full-year net profit of 1.15 trillion yen ($7.8 billion). The net profit for the 12 months to March 2025 was up from a net loss of 227 billion yen in the previous financial year. The company's earnings often swing dramatically because it invests heavily in tech start-ups and semiconductor firms, whose share prices are volatile. Tuesday's result marked its first full-year net profit since the 2020-21 financial year. SoftBank Group has been actively investing in AI in recent years under its flamboyant founder and CEO Masayoshi Son. He has repeatedly said "artificial superintelligence" will arrive in a decade -- bringing new inventions, medicine, knowledge and ways to invest. The company is leading the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the United States along with cloud giant Oracle and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. SoftBank Group and OpenAI announced in February that the Japanese giant would spend $3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI's technologies across its group companies. SoftBank also said in March it had reached a deal to acquire U.S. semiconductor firm Ampere for $6.5 billion, reinforcing its aggressive push into AI. The purchase is expected to close in the second half of the year. The Japanese company is a majority shareholder in Arm Holdings, whose technology is used in 99 percent of smartphones. Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at brokerage Toyo Securities, told AFP ahead of the announcement that he expected the firm to reveal strong figures. "The market was not bad from January to March, so I think (the results) will land relatively well," he said. "The market environment only worsened from the end of March to the beginning of April when the tariffs were announced," he said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's multi-pronged free trade war. "When AI first came out, it was mostly a dream and we couldn't do anything with it," Yasuda said. "But as of 2025, we are at the stage where it will be put to practical use, so the company is now investing in various businesses that are using AI." © 2025 AFP
Metro
13-05-2025
- Business
- Metro
Nintendo Switch 2 could be being sold at a loss claim analysts
Despite its high cost, Nintendo could be making as little as £3 on each Switch 2 console sold, suggesting they literally couldn't make the new hardware any cheaper. Nobody has been in the games business longer than Nintendo and while they've had their ups and downs, to put it mildly, they've never really been in any financial trouble, since they have vast reserves of cash (which prevents them from being taken over by other companies) and never sell their consoles at a loss – or at least almost never. Most new consoles from Sony and Microsoft are sold at a loss at launch, only becoming profitable with later hardware revisions that simplify the manufacturing process. Despite what many fans think, Nintendo has done this too, with the 3DS and Wii U both being sold at a loss for a while. There's no official information to judge what the situation is with the Nintendo Switch 2 but two different analysts suggest it's cutting things very fine, with one estimate claiming it's barely breaking even. The Nintendo Switch 2 is being sold for £395.99. That's significantly more than the £279.99 the original Switch was at launch, and the subsequent OLED Model at £309.99. However, most fans agree that it's not unreasonable, with many fearing it would be more, given inflation and the fact that the Switch 2 is bigger and more powerful than its predecessor. Instead, it's the price of the games that's been the main point of contention, with Mario Kart World costing up to £75 for the physical version, although the digital edition is cheaper and fellow first party title Donkey Kong Bananza is cheaper still. According to Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda, speaking to Bloomberg, the Nintendo Switch 2 costs around $400 in terms of raw materials. It's being sold in the US for $449.99, so that means that once you factor in manufacturing it may not be making a profit – so you can imagine how Nintendo felt when Trump started talking about tariffs. Multiple other sources also suggest that the console is making little or no profit, with YouTuber Nintendo Prime suggesting that Nintendo may be making as little as $4 (£3) on each sale in the US. Double Jump Games, who is getting 9 Switch 2 Units to sell, noticed in the order that Nintendo is basically making nothing in the US per unit. They make $4 per unit sold, Nintendo's costs basically match what it costs to be here. So next to no profit margin. — Nintendo Prime (@NintyPrime) April 28, 2025 Meanwhile, MST Financial analyst David Gibson, speaking to the Financial Times, claims that the unit price for Switch 2 consoles being manufactured in Vietnam, which have lower tariffs than those made in the US, is $338. More Trending However, that's before things like shipping and transportation (and tariffs) are taken into account, so again it seems that if the Switch 2 is being sold at a profit it's a very small one. Console manufacturers make money in two main ways, by selling their own exclusive games – which is a much more important avenue for Nintendo than for Sony or Microsoft – and for charging licencing fees to other publishers for releasing their games on the console. Conversely, this is more important for Sony and Microsoft, since Nintendo consoles have traditionally had poor third party support. The Switch 2 seems to be much better supported so far, but that can quickly evaporate if the console is not an instant success or if customers simply don't buy the third party titles. Whatever the profit figure is – and it will vary from country to country – it suggests that Nintendo is walking a narrow line and while the higher game prices are primarily because of the higher cost of making modern video games, they may also be the only way to make a profit in the short term. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: The 20 exclusive games that made Nintendo Switch the best console ever MORE: Games Inbox: Is it weird to not like GTA games? MORE: GTA 4 remaster coming to PS5 this year claims insider
Sharjah 24
13-05-2025
- Business
- Sharjah 24
Japan's SoftBank posts $7.8 bn annual net profit
The 1.15 trillion yen net profit for the 12 months to March 2025 was up from a net loss of 227 billion yen in the previous financial year. The company's earnings often swing dramatically because it invests heavily in tech start-ups and semiconductor firms, whose share prices are volatile. Tuesday's result marked its first full-year net profit since the 2020-21 financial year. SoftBank has been actively investing in AI in recent years under its flamboyant founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, who has repeatedly said "artificial superintelligence" will arrive in a decade -- bringing new inventions, medicine, knowledge and ways to invest. The company is leading the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the United States along with cloud giant Oracle and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. But Bloomberg News reported this week that uncertainty fuelled by US trade tariffs has delayed financing talks for the project, citing people familiar with the matter. SoftBank and OpenAI also announced in February that the Japanese giant would spend $3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI's technologies across its group companies. SoftBank also said in March it had reached a deal to buy US semiconductor firm Ampere for $6.5 billion, reinforcing its aggressive push into AI. The purchase is expected to close in the second half of the year. The Japanese company is a majority shareholder in Arm Holdings, whose technology is used in 99 percent of smartphones. Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at brokerage Toyo Securities, told AFP ahead of Tuesday's announcement that he expected the firm to reveal strong figures. "The market was not bad from January to March, so I think (the results) will land relatively well," he said. "The market environment only worsened from the end of March to the beginning of April when the tariffs were announced," he said, referring to US President Donald Trump's multi-pronged free trade war. Son, 67, made his name with successful early investments in Chinese ecommerce titan Alibaba and internet pioneer Yahoo. But he has also bet on catastrophic failures such as office-sharing firm WeWork. "For the last 20 years, the US market has been outstanding, so I don't think there was an option to not invest in the United States" for SoftBank, Yasuda said. During that time the Chinese market was also growing, "so they invested in China -- but China has tightened up a lot of controls, so not much has been invested in China since then", he added.
Int'l Business Times
13-05-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
Japan's SoftBank Posts $7.8 Bn Annual Net Profit
Japanese tech investor SoftBank Group, a major player in the US Stargate artificial intelligence drive, on Tuesday posted a bumper full-year net profit of $7.8 billion. The 1.15 trillion yen net profit for the 12 months to March 2025 was up from a net loss of 227 billion yen in the previous financial year. The company's earnings often swing dramatically because it invests heavily in tech start-ups and semiconductor firms, whose share prices are volatile. Tuesday's result marked its first full-year net profit since the 2020-21 financial year. SoftBank Group has been actively investing in AI in recent years under its flamboyant founder and CEO Masayoshi Son. He has repeatedly said "artificial superintelligence" will arrive in a decade -- bringing new inventions, medicine, knowledge and ways to invest. The company is leading the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the United States along with cloud giant Oracle and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. SoftBank Group and OpenAI announced in February that the Japanese giant would spend $3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI's technologies across its group companies. SoftBank also said in March it had reached a deal to acquire US semiconductor firm Ampere for $6.5 billion, reinforcing its aggressive push into AI. The purchase is expected to close in the second half of the year. The Japanese company is a majority shareholder in Arm Holdings, whose technology is used in 99 percent of smartphones. Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at brokerage Toyo Securities, told AFP ahead of the announcement that he expected the firm to reveal strong figures. "The market was not bad from January to March, so I think (the results) will land relatively well," he said. "The market environment only worsened from the end of March to the beginning of April when the tariffs were announced," he said, referring to US President Donald Trump's multi-pronged free trade war. "When AI first came out, it was mostly a dream and we couldn't do anything with it," Yasuda said. "But as of 2025, we are at the stage where it will be put to practical use, so the company is now investing in various businesses that are using AI."
Business Recorder
13-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Japan's SoftBank posts $7.8bn annual net profit
TOKYO: Japanese tech investor SoftBank Group, a major player in the US Stargate artificial intelligence drive, on Tuesday posted a bumper full-year net profit of $7.8 billion. The 1.15 trillion yen net profit for the 12 months to March 2025 was up from a net loss of 227 billion yen in the previous financial year. The company's earnings often swing dramatically because it invests heavily in tech start-ups and semiconductor firms, whose share prices are volatile. Tuesday's result marked its first full-year net profit since the 2020-21 financial year. SoftBank Group has been actively investing in AI in recent years under its flamboyant founder and CEO Masayoshi Son. He has repeatedly said 'artificial superintelligence' will arrive in a decade – bringing new inventions, medicine, knowledge and ways to invest. The company is leading the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the United States along with cloud giant Oracle and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. SoftBank Group and OpenAI announced in February that the Japanese giant would spend $3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI's technologies across its group companies. Japan's Nikkei dips as techs track US peers lower; BOJ meet in focus SoftBank also said in March it had reached a deal to acquire US semiconductor firm Ampere for $6.5 billion, reinforcing its aggressive push into AI. The purchase is expected to close in the second half of the year. The Japanese company is a majority shareholder in Arm Holdings, whose technology is used in 99 percent of smartphones. Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at brokerage Toyo Securities, told AFP ahead of the announcement that he expected the firm to reveal strong figures. 'The market was not bad from January to March, so I think (the results) will land relatively well,' he said. 'The market environment only worsened from the end of March to the beginning of April when the tariffs were announced,' he said, referring to US President Donald Trump's multi-pronged free trade war. 'When AI first came out, it was mostly a dream and we couldn't do anything with it,' Yasuda said. 'But as of 2025, we are at the stage where it will be put to practical use, so the company is now investing in various businesses that are using AI.'
