Following news that SoftBank Group had divested its full interest in Nvidia in October for $5.8 billion, the company announced profit in fiscal Q2 (ending 30 September) surged to JPY2.5 trillion ($16.2 billion) as its AI and chipmaking investments soared.

In its earnings call, SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto (pictured), referring to the sale of its holdings in Nvidia, said its OpenAI investment is large. “For that, we do need to divest our existing portfolio so that can be utilised for our financing.”

Founder of industry blog Radio Free Mobile Richard Windsor wrote the sale has not been well received, arguing “the reality is that SoftBank has exited a relatively safe AI investment and bet it all on a proposition where the outcome is very uncertain”.

Goto noted last quarter he said fiscal 2025 would be “a year of acceleration — and that’s exactly what we are seeing”. He said net profit in H2 reached a record high of JPY2.9 trillion.

Net profit in fiscal Q2 2024 was JPY1.2 trillion.

Goto said the value of its investments in OpenAI jumped by $14.6 billion.

Windsor noted that while the company reported excellent results, a large proportion of the profit was driven by unrealised gains on investments, “which history shows can evaporate in a heartbeat”.

Its Vision Funds’ fiscal Q2 profit jumped to JPY2.4 trillion from JPY373.1 billion. The unit’s investment gains rose nearly six-fold to JPY2.8 trillion.

The chip design unit Arm returned to profit in the July to September period, booking a gain of JPY32.3 billion after a loss of JPY6.3 billion a year earlier. Total revenue rose 32 per cent to JPY167.4 billion, with licensing revenue up 56 per cent year-on-year.

The company announced a 4-for-1 stock split effective from the beginning of next year.