SoftBank Group recorded a net profit of 1.9 trillion yen ($12.05 billion) for the January-March quarter, the company announced Wednesday. That's a sharp jump from 517 billion yen a year earlier, marking five consecutive quarters of profitability.
The primary driver: SoftBank's mammoth bet on OpenAI. The Vision Fund unit, which holds the stake, logged an investment gain of 3.1 trillion yen over the quarter as the ChatGPT-maker's valuation surged across multiple funding rounds.
SoftBank has committed an additional $30 billion to OpenAI through 2026, bringing its total pledged investment to $64.4 billion for an approximate 13% stake.
To fund its outlays, SoftBank has sold stakes in T-Mobile and Nvidia, issued bonds, and taken out loans backed by its holdings in chip designer Arm and domestic telecom unit SoftBank Corp.