Tokyo, Nov. 10 (Jiji Press)–SoftBank Group Corp. on Tuesday reported a consolidated net loss of 768 billion yen for April-September, against a profit of 2,924 billion yen a year earlier. The Japanese technology investor fell into the red on a first-half basis for the first time in three years. In its U.S. data center business, SoftBank Group booked a loss of 597.2 billion yen after revising its plans to procure power generation equipment. For the first half of fiscal 2026, the company posted revenues of 4,235 billion yen, up 13.3 pct from a year before. Meanwhile, the company’s overall investment return fell by more than 2 trillion yen from a year earlier to 1,725.7 billion yen. “Last year’s figure was close to our record high,” SoftBank Group Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said, adding that this year’s 1.7 trillion yen is a good figure. Investment gains at the group’s SoftBank Vision Fund, which invests mainly in startups, shrank to 341.2 billion yen, one-tenth of the year-before level. SoftBank Group completed an additional investment of 30 billion dollars in the U.S. artificial intelligence developer OpenAI last month. The additional investment brought SoftBank Group’s total investment in OpenAI to 64.6 billion dollars, raising its stake to around 13 pct. Goto said that OpenAI “is progressing smoothly,” adding that he continues to have high expectations for the company from a medium- to long-term perspective on AI. “The time has come to look at AI from various perspectives,” Goto said as concerns about the technology grow amid a surge in cyberattacks. “I believe it will bring major benefits in the medium to long term.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
