SoftBank Vision Fund Has Gained $2.4 Billion as OpenAI Bet Pays Off

SoftBank is once again staking its future on a single technological shift, trading diversification for dominance in what it sees as the defining platform of the next decade. If artificial intelligence becomes as foundational as it believes, the OpenAI bet could look prescient. If not, the Vision Fund’s gains may prove as volatile as the hype powering them

SoftBank reported a $2.4 billion gain at its Vision Fund in the December quarter, lifted by a sharp rise in the value of its investment in OpenAI that helped offset losses elsewhere in the portfolio.

The Japanese technology investor said it recorded a $4.2 billion gain tied to OpenAI during its fiscal third quarter, which ended in December. That increase countered declines linked to falling share prices at e-commerce firm Coupang and Chinese ride-hailing app Didi, alongside a markdown in its stake in TikTok parent ByteDance.

The result pushed SoftBank Group to a net profit of 248.6 billion yen, or about $1.6 billion, reversing a loss from the same period a year earlier, though the figure missed analyst expectations.

Through the Vision Fund, SoftBank has invested heavily in artificial intelligence companies it believes will be category winners, seeking to position itself at the center of the technology’s development. Among those bets is more than $30 billion invested in ChatGPT developer OpenAI, now one of SoftBank’s core companies. SoftBank owns approximately 11% of OpenAI and said it had seen a $17 billion gain on the investment between April and December.

Investors have been closely watching how SoftBank will fund its continued AI push, particularly as OpenAI remains unprofitable. The company has been trimming stakes in other firms to funnel money toward the startup. In October, SoftBank sold its entire Nvidia stake for $5.83 billion, and between June and December it offloaded $12.73 billion worth of T-Mobile shares. It has also taken out loans backed by holdings such as chip designer Arm, even as competition intensifies from rivals including Google and Anthropic.

SoftBank said it has created a new reporting category called the “AI Computing Segment,” which will include Arm along with semiconductor companies Graphcore and Ampere, both recent acquisitions. The segment lost 91.8 billion yen in the nine months ending in December due to higher headcount and acquisition-related costs associated with Ampere.

Despite those losses, SoftBank sees Arm and its other chip investments as key to expanding into areas ranging from robotics to driverless cars and data centers. Shares in SoftBank have climbed this week after strong results at its telecommunications unit and a rally in Arm’s stock, signaling renewed investor confidence as Masayoshi Son deepens his bet on artificial intelligence.

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