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SoftBank achieves profit in fourth quarter in sign of recovery gaining momentum
By Ponte Anton
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group turned a quarterly profit on Monday from a year earlier, reporting a net profit of 328.9 billion yen ($2.11 billion) in the January-March period .
The result comes after Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said in February that the technology investment firm – long known for its volatile profits and outsized bets on tech start-ups – was returning to a “growth trajectory”. .
While founder and CEO Masayoshi Son has talked for years about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) as well as robotics, SoftBank hasn’t been a big player in the kind of generative AI models like ChatGPT that have captured the public’s imagination. and investors.
But the promise of an AI-driven future has bolstered the valuation of SoftBank’s crown jewel asset, British chip design firm Arm Holdings.
Monday’s result marks the second consecutive quarter of profit for SoftBank, although for the entire year the company has remained in the red.
Investment unit Vision Fund reported an investment loss of 57.5 billion yen after three consecutive quarters of profit
Fourth-quarter net profit at the group level compared with a loss of 32 billion yen in the same period a year ago, when capital raised using SoftBank’s stake in Alibaba Group cushioned some of the writedowns on the value of portfolio companies private Vision Fund.
($1 = 155.8500 yen)
(Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by David Dolan and Christopher Cushing)