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Vision Fund, the brainchild of SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, faces a number of headwinds, including rising interest rates, a tough Chinese market and a geopolitical slump in tech stocks.
Kentaro Takahashi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Softbank reported a profit of 7.24 billion yen ($4.6 billion) at its Vision Fund in the fiscal year that ended in March, making its main technology investment arm profitable for the first time since 2021.
SoftBank’s flagship tech investment arm, the Vision Fund, struggled in the fiscal year ending March 2023, with a record of about $32 billion, as tech stocks slumped and bets on some businesses worsened. A significant loss was recorded. China.
However, in the June quarter of last year, Vision Fund posted its first investment profit in five consecutive quarters, indicating it was in the early stages of recovery.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has declared that in 2023, the company will move from a defensive mode to an “offensive” mode, breaking away from a cautious approach and starting to invest more.
SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said last quarter that SoftBank had transitioned from “Alibaba to an AI-centered portfolio.”
The technology conglomerate became one of Japan’s biggest companies thanks to Mr. Son’s early bet on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2000, which grew rapidly in the years that followed.
The company has been cutting its stake in Alibaba, and senior executives including Son and Goto have touted their excitement about SoftBank’s potential investments in artificial intelligence technology and companies in the field.
This breaking news article is being updated.