SoftBank profits soar to $32bn as OpenAI bet bears fruit

(Sharecast News) - Annual profits at Japanese investment giant SoftBank more than quadrupled over its latest fiscal year, thanks to massive gains on its investment in OpenAI.

The company, which invested $32.4bn into the ChatGPT maker over the 12 months to 31 March, taking its cumulative investment by year-end to $34.6bn, said the fair value of its investment is now $79.6bn, equating to a gain of $45.0bn.

Since the year end, it has invested a further $10bn and plans to invest another $20bn via two equal tranches in July and October, taking its cumulative investment to $64.4bn, equal to around a 13% shareholding.

Gains in its OpenAI investment, along with sizeable gains on its investments in chipmakers Intel and Arm, helped SoftBank's net asset value hit a record high of JPY40.1trn ($250bn) by the end of March, rising to over $300bn as of Tuesday, the company said.

"This shows the progress we are making to become the No.1 platform provider in an Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) world," the company said in a presentation to investors on Wednesday.

Regarding its OpenAI investment in particular, the firm said: "We have strong conviction in OpenAI's long-term potential in its management team, research leadership, strong consumer position, and access to compute. Along with Arm, OpenAI is one of our largest NAV drivers today."

SoftBank reported a net profit of JPY5.003trn ($31.7bn) for the year, up 334% from JPY1.153trn reported the year before and well ahead of the JPY3.531trn Visible Alpha consensus estimate.

SoftBank shares were up 0.4% at JPY6,012 by the close of play in Tokyo.