SoftBank reports $3.62b Q4 profit

SoftBank Group Corp. announced its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, on May 13, 2025.

The company posted a net profit of 517 billion yen (US$3.62 billion) for January-March, driven by strong telecom performance and higher startup valuations.

The company also reported an investment gain of 3,701.1 billion yen (US$25.91 billion), a notable recovery from a 559.4 billion yen (US$3.92 billion) loss in the previous fiscal year.

Key contributors to the investment gains included 1,875.9 billion yen (US$13.13 billion) from Alibaba shares, 1,352.2 billion yen (US$9.47 billion) from T-Mobile shares, and 434.2 billion yen (US$3.04 billion) from Deutsche Telekom shares.

However, these gains were offset by derivative losses of 2,018.4 billion yen (US$14.13 billion) related to prepaid forward contracts and collar transactions involving Alibaba and Deutsche Telekom shares.

The company’s income before income tax rose to 1,704.7 billion yen (US$11.93 billion), reflecting an increase of 1,646.9 billion yen (US$11.53 billion) year-on-year.

Net income attributable to shareholders was 1,153.3 billion yen (US$8.07 billion).

🔗 Source: SoftBank

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ SoftBank’s strategic pivot toward vertical AI integration

SoftBank’s acquisition of Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion represents a deliberate vertical integration strategy in AI infrastructure.

By controlling both ARM’s chip architecture and Ampere’s CPU designs, SoftBank can now influence critical layers of the AI compute stack, from instruction set to server processors 1.

This acquisition reflects SoftBank’s strategic investments to build an AI hardware portfolio competing with established players like NVIDIA, whose data center revenue reached $30.8 billion last quarter 2.

The company’s $30 billion commitment to OpenAI and its Stargate Project further strengthens this vertical approach, positioning SoftBank as both an investor in AI applications and a provider of the underlying hardware infrastructure 3.

This multi-layered strategy aligns with SoftBank’s historical “patient capital” investment philosophy, which allows for long-term positioning without immediate pressure for profitability, similar to their decade-long investment in Alibaba before it yielded significant returns 4.