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SoftBank reported a $7.7 billion quarterly profit on Tuesday after a loss last year. SoftBank Vision Fund's CFO told BI that "macro tailwinds" helped its public portfolio. AdvertisementGains for its Vision Fund 1, a $98.6 billion investment vehicle launched in 2016 with backing from Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth funds, totaled $3 billion in the second quarter. Despite the investment gain, Vision Fund 2 has lost an overall total of $21 billion since its inception. The results come as SoftBank gears up for a huge investment spree in AI to realize Son's ambitious vision.
Persons: SoftBank, , Masayoshi, Didi Chuxing, Navneet Govil, Ola, Govil, PayPay Organizations: Service, Funds, Vision, IPOs, Nvidia Locations: Abu Dhabi, Saudi, China, OpenAI, Mexico, India, ByteDance
The broader Vision Fund segment as a whole, which also factors in non-investment performance such as administrative expenses and gains and losses attributable to third-party investors, reported a gain of 373.1 billion yen. It had declared a loss of 204.3 billion yen in the company's first fiscal quarter. The Vision Fund has been cashing in on the success of the September 2023 listing of smartphone chip designer Arm Holdings , in which it owns a sweeping majority stake of around 90%. The group's print benefitted from investment gains of 1.28 trillion yen on shares of Chinese retail giant Alibaba and of 566.2 billion yen on stock of T-Mobile. On Tuesday, it said it had repurchased a cumulative 153.8 billion yen in shares by the end of the second quarter.
Persons: Toru Hanai, Didi, Son, Elliott Organizations: SoftBank Corp, SoftBank Group Corp, Bloomberg, Getty, Vision Fund, Arm Holdings, Nvidia, Yahoo, SoftBank, Mobile, Elliott Management, CNBC, Barclays Locations: Tokyo, Japan, Norwegian, Mobile . Tokyo, SoftBank
download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . The high-profile startup announced the closing of a $6.6 billion funding round that valued it at $157 billion. And more exits could be coming since OpenAI is reportedly working on allowing its employees to sell their shares in the company . Win McNamee and Didem Mente/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/InsiderIt's important to remember OpenAI's eye-popping valuation is just that … a valuation. Which gets us back to $157 billion OpenAI.
Persons: , Elon Musk's, Josh Kushner's, Cathy Wood's, Chase, Here's, Mira Murati, Kevin Weil, Rob Price, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Win McNamee, Didem, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Brad Gerstner, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Jordan Parker Erb, Milan Sehmbi, Amanda Yen Organizations: Business, Service, Elon, Elon Musk's SpaceX, Venture, Microsoft, Nvidia, Anadolu Agency, Getty, Big Tech Locations: Silicon Valley, New York, London
It will also end the week with another reputation: a new piece in the grand puzzle being solved by Masayoshi Son. Related storiesMasayoshi Son's AI vision is ambitiousOpenAI CEO Sam Altman will form just one part of Masayoshi Son's AI plans. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty ImagesTo understand Son's grand AI ambitions, it's worth first zooming out to see how SoftBank currently maps out AI investment opportunities. As of June, Vision Fund 1's gains were $21.7 billion, while Vision Fund 2 losses totaled $22.9 billion. AdvertisementSo it's become clear that Son's focus has fallen on the other part of his AI investment stack.
Persons: , Masayoshi Son, Sam, Sam Altman's, ChatGPT, Sam Altman, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, SoftBank, it'll, Son's, it's, Son, Michael M, Graphcore, Nigel Toon, OpenAI's Altman, Lionel Barber, Barber Organizations: Service, Bloomberg, Getty, Business, Microsoft, Vision, Vision Fund, Nvidia, Nikkei, Wall Street, Financial Times Locations: Tokyo, AFP
Sovereign wealth funds out of the Middle East are emerging as key backers of Silicon Valley's artificial intelligence darlings. In the past year, funding for AI companies by Middle-Eastern sovereigns has increased fivefold, according to data from Pitchbook. Few venture funds have deep enough pockets to compete with the multibillion-dollar checks coming from the likes of Microsoft and Amazon . MGX was launched as a dedicated AI fund in March, with Abu Dhabi's Mubadala and AI firm G42 as founding partners. For the U.S., having sovereign wealth funds invest in American companies, and not in global adversaries like China, has been a geopolitical priority.
Persons: Goldman Sachs, Prince Mohammed bin Salman's, Uber, LIV, UAE's Mubadala, MGX, Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, Anthropic, Andreessen Horowitz, Jamal Khashoggi, It's, Bpifrance, WeWork spiraled, Jared Cohen, there's Organizations: United, CNBC, Microsoft, Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Public Investment Fund, Abu, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Qatar Investment Authority, BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, Saudi, U.S, Saudi Company, Artificial Intelligence, Washington Post, SoftBank, Goldman Sachs Global Institute Locations: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Pitchbook, Abu Dhabi, Temasek, Singapore, China, UAE
The Japanese billionaire's conglomerate posted a $1.5 billion profit for its latest quarter. The gains come off the back of its big bet on chip firm ARM, which is targeting AI opportunities. Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas is seeking to capitalize on the AI boom. But as the appetite for ARM's AI activities show, SoftBank has room to grow in the face of the latest boom. If he's able to find the right bets, AI could pay off handsomely in the long term.
Persons: Masayoshi, , It's, SoftBank, Rene Haas, Michael M, Yoshimitsu Goto, Son, WeWork, AI's Organizations: ARM, Service, Son, Nasdaq, Apple, Arm, Funds, Nvidia Locations: Tokyo, Cambridge, London, Alibaba
Read previewMasayoshi Son owes much of his success to an incredibly prescient dot-com era bet on Alibaba. The SoftBank chief first invested $20 million in Jack Ma's ecommerce upstart in 2000, when it was just a year old. That faith was handsomely rewarded, with SoftBank realizing an incredible $72 billion gain on its investments in Alibaba over the course of 23 years. Arm and the Vision Funds collectively represent 70% of SoftBank’s net asset value, a key performance indicator that reflects the total value of its holdings. Arm, SoftBank's latest golden child, is on course to deliver, but there is still much work to be done to get the Vision Funds back on track.
Persons: , Jack Ma's ecommerce, Ma, Son, Masayoshi Son's, Jack Ma, Alibaba, ChatGPT, Yoshimitsu Goto, SoftBank, Uber, Sam Altman, he'll Organizations: Service, Business, Future Publishing, Vision, Apple, Google, Nvidia, Samsung, Nasdaq, Funds Locations: Alibaba, China, British, London
CNBC Daily Open: Banking troubles again roil markets
  + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Sumathi Bala | ) www.cnbc.com   time to read: +2 min
This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Nikkei ralliesAsia markets mostly rose Thursday, while Japan's Nikkei led gains and hit fresh 34-year highs. Russian oilIndia's energy minister claimed "the world is grateful to India for buying Russian oil," adding the move keeps global crude prices affordable. The country's refiners have been snapping up discounted Russian oil since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Persons: China's, VCs, Son's SoftBank, David Gibson Organizations: New York Community Bank, CNBC, Nikkei, Japan's Nikkei, Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Nintendo Analysts, Nintendo Locations: Hicksville , New York, Asia, India, Ukraine
Arm shares rocketed as much as 41% late Wednesday after the chip designer reported revenue and earnings that sailed past analysts' estimates. SoftBank took Arm public in September and still owns about 930 million shares, or roughly 90% of the chip designer's outstanding stock. Arm pared its initial gains, but SoftBank's stake still jumped by almost $16 billion — from close to $71.6 billion to $87.4 billion — after the earnings report. Softbank acquired Arm in 2016 for $32 billion, and its shares were worth just over $47 billion at the time of the IPO last year. The Vision Fund, SoftBank's venture arm, posted a $6.2 billion loss in the second quarter of 2023, tied to WeWork and other soured bets.
Persons: Son, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, SoftBank, Softbank Organizations: Vision Locations: Tokyo, Arm's, WeWork, Alibaba
The results underscore the volatility and risk inherent in founder Masayoshi Son's strategy of betting big on often risky start-ups. The Japanese conglomerate said it was squeezed by weakness in the yen that drove up costs on its dollar-denominated debt. SoftBank reported a 789 billion yen ($5.2 billion) net loss for the three months to end-September, compared with a 3.01 trillion yen profit a year earlier when it sold down a large portion of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (9988.HK). Its Vision Fund investment unit, meanwhile, booked an investment profit of 21.4 billion yen in the latest quarter, after posting a 160 billion yen profit three months earlier. SoftBank said it exchanged unsecured WeWork notes into shares and convertible bonds and reflected a 21.6 billion yen loss from the transaction in the first half.
Persons: Thomas Peter, Masayoshi, SoftBank, Anton Bridge, Miyoung Kim, David Dolan, Tom Hogue Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, SoftBank, HK, Vision Fund, Thomson Locations: Tokyo, WeWork
The WeWork logo is displayed outside of a shared commercial office space building in Los Angeles, California on August 8, 2023. The bankruptcy filing is limited to WeWork's locations in the U.S. and Canada, the company said in a press release. The company reported liabilities ranging from $10 billion to $50 billion, according to a bankruptcy filing. Valued in 2019 at $47 billion in a round led by Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, the company tried and failed to go public five years ago. The company leases millions of square feet of office space in 777 locations around the world, according to its regulatory filings.
Persons: WeWork, Patrick T, Fallon, PATRICK T, FALLON, David Tolley, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, Adam Neumann, Neumann, Kirkland, Ellis, Cole Schotz, PJT, CNBC's Ari Levy Organizations: Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Getty, New York Stock Exchange, CNBC, PJT Partners, C Street Advisory Group, Alvarez, Marsal Locations: Los Angeles , California, AFP, New Jersey, U.S, Canada
WeWork's inevitable retreat is here
  + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Tom Carter | ) www.businessinsider.com   time to read: +4 min
NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . It comes after the company warned that there was "substantial doubt" about its ability to stay in business back in August. A company that planned to 'change the world'Once the US's most valuable tech startup , WeWork has seen a dramatic fall from grace. Years later, WeWork's financial woes could have dire consequences for commercial real estate.
Persons: WeWork, , Masayoshi, Adam Neumann, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, Neumann Organizations: Service, Beam, BBC, Street Journal, Reuters, Softbank, Columbia Business School Locations: London, Central London, Valley, WeWork
But a person who worked closely with Ramaswamy said, "He thinks people are put on this earth to serve him." Roivant attracted investors including Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Vision Fund, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, and the hedge fund Viking Global Investors. Former Roivant employees said Ramaswamy worked hard and expected the same of others. McLaughlin called the employee's recollection "inaccurate," adding that Ramaswamy "has never once raised his voice or used bad language with employees." At Roivant, Ramaswamy kept his politics largely to himself, former employees said.
Persons: Vivek Ramaswamy, Ramaswamy, He's, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Trump, George Soros, didn't, Taco Bell, he's, , Vivek, Tricia McLaughlin, he'd, McLaughlin, takeout, Forbes, Vivek doesn't, they've, Roivant, Masayoshi, Peter Thiel's, Thiel, JD Vance, Bill Ackman, who'd, . Ramaswamy, Erik Gordon, Vance, John Phillips, Joyce Rosely, Phillips, Anson Frericks, they'd, Rosely, Frericks, They're, they're, Eric Balchunas, Todd Rosenbluth, Rosenbluth, Christopher Lenzo, Brandon Bell, Vivek Ramaswamy's, Katherine Long, Jack Newsham, Meghan Morris Organizations: pharma, Army Rangers, Biotech, Republican, nab, GOP, of Education, FBI, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Federal Reserve, Florida, Roivant Sciences, General Electric, Yale Law School, Army, Rangers, Harvard, Yale, Fund, Viking Global, Leerink Partners, GlaxoSmithKline, Forbes, Big Pharma, Japan's Sumitomo Pharma Co, ., University of Michigan, FDA, US, Yale Law, ESG, The, Texas, Indiana, BlackRock, Vanguard, Bloomberg Intelligence, Fair, SEC Locations: Mexico, FiveThirtyEight, Roivant, Patagonia, Iowa, New York, Ohio, The Lever
WeWork , the office-sharing company once valued at $47 billion, said Friday it will undergo a 1-for-40 reverse stock split to try and keep its stock from being delisted. "The Reverse Stock Split is being effected to regain compliance with the $1.00 per share minimum closing price required to maintain continued listing on the New York Stock Exchange," WeWork said in a filing with the SEC. The reverse split will take effect after the close of trading on Sept. 1, the company said. The move will do nothing to improve the company's financials or valuation but, based on Friday's close, it would lift the stock price to $5.60. With or without a higher stock price, WeWork is in dire straits.
Persons: WeWork, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Adam Neumann Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, SEC, NYSE
Apple and Samsung to invest in SoftBank's Arm at IPO -Nikkei
  + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoTOKYO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) will invest in SoftBank Group (9984.T)-owned chip designer Arm at its initial public offering (IPO), expected in September, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported on Tuesday. Reuters reported in June that Arm was in talks with some ten companies - including Apple, Samsung and Intel (INTC.O) - with the aim of bringing on one or more anchor investors in the offering. Last month, Reuters and other media reported that Arm was in talks to bring in U.S. chip designer Nvidia (NVDA.O) as an anchor investor for the New York listing. Apple, Samsung, Nvidia and Intel all plan to invest in Arm as soon as it is listed on the market, the Nikkei said. Apple, Nvidia and Intel did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment.
Persons: Dado Ruvic, SoftBank, Masayoshi, Anton Bridge, Elaine Lies, Joyce Lee, Akash Sriram, Louise Heavens, David Dolan, Miyoung Kim, Sharon Singleton Organizations: REUTERS, Samsung Electronics, SoftBank, Japan's Nikkei, Reuters, Apple, Samsung, Intel, Nvidia, New, Nikkei, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, Vision Fund, Thomson Locations: KS, New York, Tokyo, Seoul
The timing of the listing was still unclear as money-losing PayPay needs to first demonstrate a clear path to profitability, the source said. SoftBank has previously set a PayPay listing as a goal, with one executive saying in November it was worth just under 1 trillion yen ($7.17 billion). Representatives for PayPay and SoftBank Group's (9984.T) domestic telecoms business, SoftBank Corp (9434.T), said they would not comment on speculation. PayPay is owned by SoftBank Corp, its internet business, Z Holdings (4689.T), and the group's second Vision Fund. PayPay booked a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 11.9 billion yen in the year ended March, compared to a loss of 43.2 billion yen a year earlier.
Persons: SoftBank, SoftBank Group's, Kirk Boodry, Son, PayPay, Sam Nussey, Miho Uranaka, Scott Murdoch, David Dolan, Muralikumar Organizations: Companies, Z Holdings, PayPay, SoftBank Corp, Vision Fund, SoftBank, Syla Technologies, Rakuten Bank, SBI Sumishin, Bank, Astris Advisory, Mobile Marketing, Cambridge, Thomson Locations: . New York, Tokyo, New York, U.S, Astris Advisory Japan, Japan, England
But the nation is lagging behind in the generative AI race and is trying to create its own large language models. Generative AI has been the trendiest topic in tech since OpenAI made waves with its chatbot ChatGPT. Key to generative AI development are large language models which underpin the likes of ChatGPT and Baidu's Ernie Bot, capable of processing vast data sets to generate text and other content. Japanese companies pursuing generative AIBig Tech players have also joined the fray to boost Japan's standing in generative AI. While it has yet to catch up in the generative AI space, Japan is making its first stride with these private sector efforts.
Persons: Goldman Sachs, Ernie Bot, Noriyuki Kojima, Kojima, Fumio Kishida, Sam Altman, Masayoshi, Son, Amir Anvarzadeh, Anvarzadeh, CyberAgent, Bloom Organizations: Getty, Japan, Technology, Reuters, Microsoft, Google, Ministry of Economy Trade, Industry, IMD, Nikkei, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tohoku University, Fujitsu, Riken, Japanese, Big Tech, SoftBank Group, SB Energy, Toyota Tsusho, Fortress Investment, Vision Fund, Asymmetric Advisors, NTT, Local Locations: Japan, China, Europe, Nikkei Asia, Government, Tohoku, Hokkaido, SoftBank
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationTOKYO, July 3 (Reuters) - Japan is leaning toward softer rules governing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) than the European Union, said an official close to deliberations, as it looks to the technology to boost economic growth and make it a leader in advanced chips. A softer Japanese approach could dull EU efforts to establish its rules as a global benchmark, with requirements such as companies disclosing copyrighted material used to train AI systems that generate content like text and graphics. EU industry chief Thierry Breton is visiting Tokyo this week to promote the bloc's approach to AI rule-making as well as to deepen cooperation in semiconductors. The government official did not elaborate on areas where Japan's rules were likely to differ from those of the EU. For Japan, AI could help cope with the population decline that is causing a labour shortage.
Persons: Dado Ruvic, Thierry Breton, Yutaka Matsuo, Matsuo, Breton, Japan's, Sam Nussey, Tim Kelly, Christopher Cushing Organizations: REUTERS, European Union, EU, The University, Tokyo's, Learning, SoftBank, Microsoft, Japan, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Japan, European, U.S, Tokyo, China
A softer Japanese approach could dull EU efforts to establish its rules as a global benchmark, with requirements such as companies disclosing copyrighted material used to train AI systems that generate content like text and graphics. EU industry chief Thierry Breton is visiting Tokyo this week to promote the bloc's approach to AI rule-making as well as to deepen cooperation in semiconductors. The government official did not elaborate on areas where Japan's rules were likely to differ from those of the EU. For Japan, AI could help cope with the population decline that is causing a labour shortage. "If you increased the GPUs in Japan by 10 times, it would probably still be less than what OpenAI has available," said Prof. Matsuo.
Persons: Dado Ruvic, Thierry Breton, Yutaka Matsuo, Matsuo, Breton, Japan's, Sam Nussey, Tim Kelly, Christopher Cushing Organizations: REUTERS, European Union, EU, The University, Tokyo's, Learning, SoftBank, Microsoft, Japan, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Japan, European, U.S, Tokyo, China
Jefferies discusses SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son's investments
  + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com   time to read: 1 min
Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSoftBank's Masayoshi Son was early to investment themes but hasn't picked the best stocks: JefferiesAtul Goyal, managing director at Jefferies, says SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son has been "very early" when it comes to investment themes such as e-commerce, but hasn't made the "best" stock picks.
Persons: Son, hasn't, Jefferies Atul Goyal, Jefferies, Masayoshi Son Organizations: SoftBank
[1/2] The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. The fourth-quarter earnings come after the Vision Fund unit posted four consecutive quarters of investment loss, with investors debating whether the value of privately held stakes have further to fall. Portfolio firms of the Vision Fund unit whose shares climbed during January-March include e-commerce firm Coupang Inc (CPNG.N) and robotics firm AutoStore Holdings Ltd (AUTO.OL). What matters is Arm for SoftBank to demonstrate it can get results as an investment company," said SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Satoru Kikuchi. Still, SoftBank executives are unlikely to offer meaningful new information about the Arm listing on Thursday, Kikuchi said.
SoftBank has said the initial public offering (IPO) is unlikely to take place during the current business year that ends in March due to market conditions. SoftBank is expected to post a net profit of 103.7 billion yen ($806.13 million) for the latest quarter, according to analysts' average estimate compiled by Refinitiv. That compares with a 29 billion yen profit a year earlier. SoftBank bought Arm, whose technology underpins the global smartphone industry and is used in supercomputers, for $32 billion in 2016. read moreOne notable change to SoftBank's quarterly announcement this time around is the lack of founder and chief executive Masayoshi Son's colourful presentation, which has been a regular feature of SoftBank's earnings disclosure.
Elon Musk can add a new title to his resume: Guinness World Record holder. The 53-year-old's wealth decline spared Amazon founder Jeff Bezos from taking the Guinness World Record. Bezos's $80 billion loss in 2022 would have firmly given him the "largest loss" title were it not for Musk. Fellow tech CEO Mark Zuckerberg also broke Masayoshi Son's record with his $78 billion loss. As of Jan. 10, Forbes estimates that his net worth sits at $142.1 billion, making him the No.
Big deals for the big (and little) screen. Next year is shaping up to be a big one for media deals. Like many other industries, media quickly turned quiet on the dealmaking front this year as the economy soured. However, a stabilization of interest rates, along with money burning a hole in investors' pockets, could lead to a big 2023, insiders say. The landscape for media deals is fascinating when you consider the two opposing forces, as Lucia pointed out to me.
SoftBank faces tech stock weakness at Q2 earnings
  + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
TOKYO, Nov 7 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) is expected to face further weakness in tech stocks when it reports second-quarter earnings on Friday, after two brutal quarters that have shaken Masayoshi Son's tech conglomerate. The Vision Fund investing arm booked $50 billion in losses in the six months to end-June as valuations slid. Founder and Chief Executive Son has moved to cut headcount and refocus the second fund on managing its existing portfolio. Alibaba (9988.HK), , which SoftBank has been selling to raise cash, has fallen more than 40% year-to-date. "For most/all funding needs, SBG will use Alibaba shares to defend its balance sheet or stock price," Goyal wrote.
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