Japanese tech conglomerate and investment holding giant SoftBank Group posted a smaller-than-expected 18% drop in first-quarter profit on Thursday (July 6), buoyed by a gain on its stake in chipmaker Intel, even as the Masayoshi Son-led venture recorded no valuation gain from its OpenAI holdings.
The investment and technology conglomerate booked record net income of more than five trillion yen (USD 31.70 billion) in 2025, boosted by the rising value of its ChatGPT holdings.
Amid the ongoing AI boom, investors are focusing their attention on the finances of Son’s SoftBank, with the latter betting big on AI.
“There’s clear demand and an overwhelming shortage of supply. I think we’re in a very healthy state,” chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto said at a press conference in Tokyo, while entertaining questions about fears of a bubble in the buildout of AI data centres.
Softbank’s net income in the April to June period stood at 347.3 billion yen. The conglomerate booked an investment gain of 1.86 trillion yen in the quarter, with the biggest contributor being its shareholding in Intel, whose shares have rallied, since Son ally Lip-Bu Tan becoming the American tech giant’s CEO in March 2025.
SoftBank made an investment in the chipmaker last year as it underwent restructuring. The Son-led venture also booked a gain on its stake in TikTok parent, ByteDance.
SoftBank’s cumulative investment in OpenAI is set to reach USD 64.6 billion by October 2026 for a stake of around 13%. The total investment gain currently stands at USD 45 billion.
SoftBank has also agreed to a USD 10 billion loan with financial institutions using its OpenAI stake as collateral. As per the reports, talks for a loan had earlier stalled over difficulty in valuing the ChatGPT maker due to the latter’s status as a private company.
SoftBank has already arranged margin loans on its holdings in Arm and SoftBank Corp. worth USD 20 billion and USD 7.4 billion, respectively.
While the Japanese tech conglomerate secured a USD 40 billion bridging loan to cover its investment commitments in 2026, the facility will expire in March 2027, following which SoftBank will have to pay it back or refinance.
In the H2 2026, SoftBank will be investing a further USD 20 billion in OpenAI, apart from paying USD 5.4 billion to acquire ABB’s robotics business. It will also spend USD 3.1 billion to acquire digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge.