Investors Send SoftBank Stock 4.4% Lower Even as Profit Beats Estimates

SoftBank Group (9984.T) stock fell 4.41% on Thursday even after its quarterly profit beat forecasts. A 1.33 trillion yen gain on its Intel stake could not ease investor worries.

The stock closed at 5,695 yen in Tokyo, down 263 yen from the prior session. Net income reached 347.3 billion yen, roughly triple the 120.23 billion yen analysts had expected, according to LSEG.

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Intel Windfall Powers a Profit Beat For Softbank

SoftBank booked a 1,332.9 billion yen gain on its Intel shares during the quarter. Intel stock climbed from $44.13 to $139.63 over the period, per the company’s report.

The gain flowed through SoftBank’s investment holding arm. That unit posted segment income of 1,051.6 billion yen, reversing a 20.9 billion yen loss a year earlier.

Total investment gains reached 1,859.4 billion yen for the quarter. Net sales rose 10.9% to 2,019.6 billion yen.

OpenAI Stalls as Vision Fund Profit Nearly Vanishes

SoftBank recorded no gain or loss on its OpenAI stake this quarter. The valuation held flat from the prior fiscal year-end.

That marked a sharp shift from earlier periods when OpenAI drove large gains. Vision Funds segment income fell 98.8% year-on-year to 5.4 billion yen. In the prior quarter, OpenAI drove a Vision Fund gain of nearly $20 billion.

Meanwhile, this time the investment gain was driven by y a $2.2 billion (¥358,435 million) increase in the fair value of Bytedance. SoftBank keeps expanding its OpenAI wager. It invested $10 billion in April and another $10 billion in July.

“Upon completion of the third tranche, scheduled for October 2026, the Company’s cumulative investment in OpenAI is expected to reach $64.6 billion, representing an ownership interest of approximately 13%,” the firm said.

SoftBank’s AI Computing segment, which houses Arm, deepened its loss to 200.8 billion yen. Higher expenses at Arm, Graphcore, and Ampere drove the decline.

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