SoftBank, a Japanese multinational investment holding company has delivered a striking comeback in Q1 2025, posting a robust profit that far exceeded market expectations, sending its shares soaring to an all-time high.
The tech giant saw its share price surge more than 13% on Friday to a record intraday high, after a sharp first quarter (Q1) report.
SoftBank posted a ¥421.8 billion ($2.87 billion) net profit for Q1 2025, its second straight profitable quarter and a full reversal from the ¥174 billion loss recorded in the same period a year earlier. This rebound was fueled largely by a $4.8 billion increase in Vision Fund asset value as SoftBank deepened its AI investments across sectors and continents.
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When excluding one-time factors, operating income was 290.7 billion JPY and net income was 145.3 billion JPY, representing 6% and 1% YoY increases, respectively. The company’s President & CEO, Junichi Miyakawa, noted that with these figures, good progress is being made toward the FY2025 full-year forecast, with 25% of revenue, 29% of operating income, and 27% of net income achieved in Q1 so far.
All business segments recorded YoY increases in revenue, and the Enterprise, Distribution, and Financial Business segments also recorded YoY increases in operating income. “Each segment is making steady progress toward achieving its full-year forecast,” Miyakawa commented.
In the Financial Business segment, Q1 FY2024 revenue was up by 23% YoY at 91.3 billion JPY, and operating income reached 18.1 billion JPY, more than double the amount of 7.6 billion JPY in operating income registered in the previous fiscal year. The increase was driven by a 87% YoY increase in PayPay’s consolidated EBITDA.
Notably, SoftBank’s turnaround is being fueled by its aggressive investments in artificial intelligence, a strategy that is reigniting investor confidence and positioning the company at the forefront of the rapidly evolving AI race.
The tech giant has been aggressively investing in AI and has built a web of partnerships and capital stakes in companies developing the technology. The company has raised its stake in Nvidia to about $3bn and has also invested in the world’s biggest chipmaker, TSMC, and database giant Oracle. Nvidia’s share price has risen almost 30 per cent since the beginning of the year.
Also, SoftBank partnered with OpenAI to develop “Cristal Intelligence,” an advanced enterprise AI, with a $3 billion annual commitment to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across its group. They also established SB OpenAI Japan to tailor AI for Japanese enterprises. Additionally, SoftBank led a $40 billion funding round for OpenAI at a $300 billion valuation to advance AI research and infrastructure.
The tech giant is targeting AI investments through its Vision Funds, investment vehicles that recorded gains on investments of ¥726.8bn, helped in particular by the rise in valuation of South Korean e-commerce company Coupang. The Vision Funds had a “late-stage portfolio valued at $45bn”, including payments subsidiary PayPay, which the company said was preparing for an initial public offering.
In a recent development, SoftBank is taking ownership of Foxconn Technology Group’s electric vehicle plant in Ohio, a move aimed at kick-starting the Japanese company’s $500 billion Stargate data center project with OpenAI and Oracle Corp.
SoftBank’s aggressive AI and tech investments, led by Masayoshi Son’s vision for “artificial superintelligence,” position it as a major player in shaping the future of technology.