Softbank Group Corp yesterday reported an annual net loss of US$7.2 billion after a bruising year for the tech start-up sector in which it is heavily invested.
The company said its annual net loss came to ￥970 billion (US$7.2 billion) on sales of ￥6.57 trillion, reflecting in part major losses from its Vision Fund portfolios.
The Vision Fund 1 and 2 vehicles were hit by the global tech rout, the company said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
“Share prices of numerous public portfolio companies declined for the fiscal year amid the weakness in global stock markets, although share prices of several companies rose in the fourth quarter,” it said.
“The fair value of a wide range of private portfolio companies also decreased, reflecting markdowns of weaker-performing companies and share price declines among market comparable companies,” it added.
The two funds recorded ￥4.3 trillion in losses, Softbank said, as they took hits across a range of start-up investments, from long-struggling WeWork Inc to delivery service DoorDash Inc.
“Softbank Group’s performance very much depends on share prices,” Toyo Securities Co analyst Hideki Yasuda said ahead of the company’s announcement.
Analysts fear that more bad news might be on the cards.
RISK OF MARKDOWNS
“We believe that the private company portfolios ... are at risk of further meaningful markdowns going forward,” wrote Victor Galliano, an analyst who publishes on SmartKarma.
Vision Fund vehicles had reported losses for four straight quarters through December last year.
Meanwhile, the company’s mobile unit has declared it is joining a global race to build a version of ChatGPT, following a plethora of US and Chinese corporations and start-ups vying to roll out their own conversational bots.
Wireless unit Softbank Corp set up a new entity in March, choosing about 1,000 people to develop a Japanese-language version of ChatGPT, chief executive officer Junichi Miyakawa said during an earnings briefing on Wednesday.
He did not elaborate on the project’s goals or progress so far.
Softbank Group billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, who for years touted AI as a revolutionary force in the way we use technology, gathered a group of engineers recently and spoke about ChatGPT’s possibilities, Miyakawa said.
He did not give details.
“We are dead positive on ChatGPT,” Miyakawa said. “Most of our meetings these days touch on topics related to ChatGPT. The ChatGPT party has started.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS