SoftBank Posts Strong Q1 2025 Profit as Shares Hit Record High on AI Investment Surge

SoftBank, a Japanese multinational investment portfolio company delivered a striking return in the first quarter of 2025, displaying a robust profit that far exceeded market expectations, sending its shares to a record level.

The technology giant saw the course of its shares increase by more than 13% on Friday to an intraday high record, after a net first quarter (Q1).

SoftBank posted a net net profit of 421.8 billion yen ($ 2.87 billion) for the first quarter of 2025, its second consecutive trimester and a complete reversal of the loss of 174 billion yen recorded during the same period a year earlier. This rebound was largely fed by an increase of $ 4.8 billion in the value of the assets of the vision fund as SoftBank deepened its investments in AI between sectors and continents.

When you exclude punctual factors, operating profit was 290.7 billion JPY and net profit was 145.3 billion JPY, representing 6% and 1% annual sliding respectively. The president and chief executive officer of the company, Junichi Miyakawa, noted that with these figures, good progress is in the process of achieving forecasts for the financial year 20125, with 25% of income, 29% of operating profit and 27% of net profit made in the first quarter.

All business segments have recorded annual shift income increases, and distribution, distribution and finance business segments have also recorded increases in annual shift operating income. “Each segment regularly makes progress towards the realization of its annual forecasts”, “ Miyakawa commented.

In the financial companies segment, the first quarter of the 2010 financial year increased 23% in annual sliding to 91.3 billion JPY, and operating profit reached 18.1 billion JPY, more than double the amount of 7.6 billion JPY in the operational income recorded in the previous year. The increase was driven by an increase of 87% in annual sliding of the consolidated EBITDA of Paypay.

In particular, the reversal of Softbank is fueled by its aggressive investments in artificial intelligence, a strategy that delights investors’ confidence and positions the company at the avant-garde of the AA breed in rapid development.

The technology giant has invested aggressively in AI and has built a network of capital partnerships and participations in companies that develop technology. The company has increased its participation in Nvidia to around $ 3 billion and has also invested in the world’s largest manufacturer in flea, TSMC, and the Oracle database giant. The course of NVIDIA’s action has increased by almost 30% since the start of the year.

In addition, SoftBank has teamed up with Openai to develop “Cristal Intelligence”, an advanced corporate company, with an annual commitment of $ 3 billion to deploy Openai solutions throughout its group. They also established SB Openai Japan to adapt the AI for Japanese companies. In addition, SoftBank led a finance round of $ 40 billion for OpenAI to an evaluation of $ 300 billion to advance the research and infrastructure of the AI.

The technology giant is targeting AI investments thanks to its vision funds, investment vehicles that have recorded gains in investments of 726.8 billion yen, helped in particular by the increase in the assessment of the South Korean COUNG Electronic Commerce Company. The vision funds had a “portfolio in advance at a value of 45 billion dollars”, including the Paypay subsidiary, which said said for a first public offer.

In a recent development, SoftBank appropriate for the Foxconn Technology Group electric vehicle plant in Ohio, a decision to launch the Stargate data center project of $ 500 billion from the Japanese company with Openai and Oracle Corp.

Aggressive investments in AI and SoftBank technology, led by the vision of Masayoshi Son for “artificial superintendent”, position it as a major player in the formation of the future of technology.