SoftBank Group shares climb 10% after better-than-expected earnings result

ISTANBUL

Japanese giant SoftBank Group's stock surged more than 10% on Friday after the firm reported higher-than-expected financial results for the April-June quarter.

The firm's profits for the April-June period rose came in at 421.8 billion yen ($2.87 billion), according to SoftBank's financial results released on Thursday.

In the same period of 2024, SoftBank saw a loss of 174.3 billion yen ($1.18 billion).

The net sales of the firm rose 7% year-on-year in the same period to total 1.82 trillion yen ($44.7 billion).

The earnings for the April-June quarter topped market expectations.

The Japanese giant also said on Thursday that the value of its Vision Funds increased by $4.8 billion, the most since the 2021 June quarter, in contrast to a loss during the same period last year.

SoftBank has been committing large amounts of funds to the artificial intelligence. In addition to spearheading a $40 billion fundraising round into ChatGPT developer OpenAI, the Japanese giant is presently awaiting the completion of its planned $6.5 purchase of AI chip company Ampere Computing.

According to SoftBank, the company and other investors have contributed a total of $10 billion to OpenAI. By December, the remaining $30 billion will be funded.

Also, earlier this year, SoftBank has entered into joint ventures with US tech giants such as Nvidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Oracle to invest in AI infrastructure in the US and Japan.