Latest news with #YoshimitsuGoto
Mint
21-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
SoftBank Taps Mizuho, SMBC, JPMorgan to Run $15 Billion Loan
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp.'s investments in AI will be financed through a loan in which Mizuho Bank Ltd., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. serve as lead underwriters — a sign of the Japanese tech investor's ability to secure financing for its outsized ambitions. The one-year $15 billion bridge loan, one of the biggest borrowings SoftBank has pulled off to date, will be financed by 21 banks and includes $1.35 billion from Mizuho, $1.25 billion from SMBC and $1 billion from JPMorgan, according to people familiar with the matter. It also includes $950 million each from HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays Plc and $850 million apiece from seven banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., MUFG Bank Ltd. and Credit Agricole SA, said the people, who asked not to be named as the details of the financing remain private. SoftBank declined to comment. Representatives of the banks also declined to comment. The proceeds will help SoftBank's multi-year bid to sway artificial intelligence's growth and direction. First on the agenda is a $6.5 billion acquisition of chip designer Ampere Computing LLC, along with an investment of as much as $30 billion into OpenAI, according to SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto, who revealed the outlines of the bridge loan at an earnings briefing last week. 'Demand for the syndication was more than double the $15 billion required,' Goto said. 'The swift response we received is a reflection of the strength of our relationship and our close communication with our banks.' SoftBank is also in talks with potential debt investors for the $100 billion Stargate project, an AI infrastructure push in the US that aims to funnel more than $500 billion into data centers and secure the electricity and hardware they need. Some of the conversations behind Stargate have slowed due to market volatility, uncertainty around US trade policy and questions around the financial valuations of AI hardware, Bloomberg News has reported. SoftBank is in constant discussion with banks about both its short- and long-term financial strategy, Goto said, adding that both Ampere and OpenAI represent key investments in the AI arena, and that Stargate is another investment on the horizon. 'It's not true that banks are hesitating,' he said. The group of 21 lenders comprises 6 Japanese banks, 10 from Europe and 5 from the US, SoftBank said. The Tokyo-based conglomerate attracted enough interest from banks to borrow more than $27 billion, according to SoftBank's presentation slides. The large-scale dollar loan was signed on April 10, the people said. Bloomberg News reported in April that SoftBank was seeking to borrow as much as $16.5 billion to help fund AI investments in the US and that the money could be used to fund its OpenAI investments. Shares of SoftBank closed 0.7% lower in Tokyo on Wednesday, taking this year's decline to 18%. SoftBank's previous mega-loans include a $10 billion margin loan in 2021, backed by its shares in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. In 2017, the company issued ¥2.65 trillion in senior debt to refinance loans that backed the purchase of US carrier Sprint Corp. in 2013 and Arm Holdings Plc in 2016. (Updates with SoftBank shares in the second-to-last paragraph. An earlier version corrected the loan amounts being provided by the banks other than lead underwriters.) More stories like this are available on
Kuwait Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- Kuwait Times
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 $7.8 billion annual net profit, its first in the black for four years. Global market rallies were a boon to SoftBank, which reaped gains from its investments in the likes of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and US telecom firm T-Mobile. Its 1.15 trillion yen ($7.8 billion) 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. The group's Vision Fund investment vehicle also saw the values of its stakes in Tiktok operator ByteDance and South Korean e-commerce service Coupang jump. SoftBank has been betting big on AI under its flamboyant founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, who has repeatedly said 'artificial superintelligence' will arrive in a decade — bringing new inventions, medicine 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's Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto told reporters that it enjoys strong ties with OpenAI and said trade tariffs should not hinder the group's operations. In March, SoftBank said 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. – AFP
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Business Standard
13-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Softbank reports 1st profit in 4-yrs; India bets Ola, Swiggy weigh on SVF2
Japan's SoftBank Group has reported its first annual profit in four years, as it pivoted towards new technology bets, including artificial intelligence (AI). The company reported a net income of ¥1.15 trillion for the year ended 31 March 2025, compared to a loss of ¥227.6 billion in the previous year. For the fourth quarter, the company posted a net income of ¥546 billion, rebounding from a loss in the previous quarter. Despite the overall positive performance, some of SoftBank's India investments — housed under its Vision Fund 2 (SVF2) — weighed on results. SVF2 reported an investment loss of ¥561.7 billion (approximately $3.6 billion). The company stated that the fair value of investments held at the end of the fourth quarter had declined by 2.7 per cent from the previous quarter. In its results presentation, SoftBank said: 'Down 21.7% quarter-on-quarter for public portfolio companies, mainly due to share price declines in Swiggy and Ola Electric Mobility.' Speaking during an analyst call, SoftBank Director Yoshimitsu Goto said: '… hopefully we will be able to see a good recovery from there.' Shares of both Ola and Swiggy declined nearly 40 per cent during the January–March period.
Bloomberg
13-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
SoftBank Backs OpenAI Reform Plan to Keep Nonprofit in Control
SoftBank Group Corp. supports OpenAI's latest plan to turn its for-profit division into a public benefit corporation, even if the overall business remains under the control of its nonprofit. 'The part that we care about is the for-profit business,' SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto told an earnings conference Tuesday. 'I don't see the overall direction as bad for us.'
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
SoftBank posts first annual profit in four years, but Ola and Swiggy weigh on Vision Fund 2 in Q4
SoftBank Group reported a $708 million investment loss for its Vision Fund 2 in the January-March quarter, primarily due to the poor performance of Indian listed stocks like Swiggy and Ola Electric. Despite these losses, gains from Vision Fund 1 helped SoftBank achieve a $3.5 billion profit in the fourth quarter, marking its first annual profit in four years. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank Group booked an investment loss of $708 million for its Vision Fund 2 in the January–March quarter, citing the poor performance of Indian listed stocks as a key factor. Food and grocery delivery company Swiggy and two-wheeler manufacturer Ola Electric are the two Indian listed companies in SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF) 2's portfolio.'...some slowdown and drop in share price in portfolio in India was one of the reasons for that (loss on investments in SVF-2). Hopefully, we will be able to see some good recovery from there,' SoftBank director Yoshimitsu Goto said during the company's earnings presentation on said that on a sequential basis, the fair value of investments held by SVF-2 in public companies was down 22% 'mainly due to share price declines in Swiggy and Ola Electric Mobility'.According to data from the National Stock Exchange, the share prices of Swiggy and Ola Electric declined by around 40% in the January-March Swiggy's stock, which listed on the exchanges last November, began sliding at the beginning of the year after quick commerce companies stepped up their cash burn amid rising competition. Swiggy, too, increased its cash burn on account of investments in quick commerce . For the March quarter, it reported a Rs 1,081 crore consolidated net loss During the period, Ola Electric also suffered market share losses in the electric two-wheeler segment to legacy rivals Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor as the company faced issues with its after-sales losses from SVF-2's Indian listed portfolio companies, gains from SVF-1 helped SoftBank post a $3.5 billion profit in the fourth quarter, leading to its first annual profit in four said that the fair value of SVF-1's investments rose 4.1% at the end of the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter. The value of public portfolio companies increased 0.8%, supported by gains in Chinese ride-hailing firm DiDi and European used-car sales platform Auto1 shares, though partially offset by declines in omnichannel children's products retailer FirstCry and other portfolio companies saw a 6.6% rise, largely due to an increase in the valuation of TikTok-owner ByteDance, attributed to 'higher share prices of market comparable companies and its stronger business performance'.In the earnings presentation, Goto underscored that despite uncertainties arising from US President Donald Trump's trade policies, SoftBank plans to continue its investment activity.'In a highly uncertain environment, we would continue to conduct financial activities with prudence and boldness to build a solid foundation for net asset value,' Goto until last year, the market for initial public offerings (IPOs) in India took a hit as a result of the US imposition of retaliatory tariffs. This has led to several new-age and tech companies taking a relook at their plans to go fiscal year 2025, SoftBank said it sold positions worth $5.35 billion from SVF-1 and SVF-2, including full exits from 24 portfolio companies such as US food delivery platform DoorDash and Hong Kong-based AI company SenseTime, and partial exits from several SoftBank did not sell any stake in Swiggy during its November IPO, it sold a stake worth around $25 million in Ola Electric's August issue. The Japanese investor sold a $110 million stake in Pune-based FirstCry, an SVF-1 portfolio company, during its IPO in August 2024.
