SoftBank posts profit beat boosted by $8.2 billion investment gain from Intel

SoftBank reported a profit beat for its fiscal first quarter, with net profit reaching 347.3 billion Japanese yen ($2.2 billion), surpassing analyst expectations of 120.23 billion. This marked an 18% year-on-year decline. The company saw a significant gain of 1.3 trillion yen from its ownership of Intel, following a $2 billion investment last year.

This boost contributed to a segment profit of 1.05 trillion yen for the investment division, separate from the Vision Fund. SoftBank's Vision Funds, which encompass investments ranging from OpenAI to ByteDance (TikTok's owner), experienced a $1.7 billion gain in value, primarily due to a $2.2 billion increase in the worth of their stake in ByteDance.

This offset declines in other investments, such as PayPay. The Vision Funds segment reported a profit of 5.4 billion yen, a stark contrast to the previous quarter's nearly $20 billion gain, which was largely attributed to OpenAI. SoftBank noted no gain or loss from its investment in OpenAI, a stark difference from the previous quarter's performance.