Japanese tech giant SoftBank posts quarterly loss of $23 billion

Japanese tech firm SoftBank Group posted a loss of $23.4bn (£19.2bn) in the April-June quarter as the value of its investments fell on global worries about inflation and interest rates.

SoftBank Group lost 3.16 trillion yen, in contrast to a profit of 762 billion yen (£4.6 billion) a year earlier.

The company said on Monday that quarterly sales rose 6%.

SoftBank posted a loss of 1.7 trillion yen (£10.7 billion) in the fiscal year ended March, in contrast to a profit of 4.9 trillion yen the previous year. Annual sales rose 10.5% to 6.2 trillion yen (£38 billion).

While SoftBank’s portfolio has not been directly affected by the Ukraine war, the company has warned that global uncertainty as well as inflation and soaring energy costs could hurt its profitability. Foreign exchange losses also affected its earnings.

SoftBank’s plan to sell British semiconductor and software design firm Arm to Nvidia earlier this year fell through. SoftBank now promises lucrative future growth for Arm, including an initial public offering, but has yet to announce an offering date.

SoftBank acquired Arm in 2016. Arm is a leader in artificial intelligence, IoT, cloud, metaverse and autonomous driving. Its semiconductor designs are widely licensed and used in nearly all smartphones, most tablets and digital TVs. This technology is believed to be the key to self-driving cars.

SoftBank also holds stakes in SoftBank mobile operator, Yahoo Internet service provider, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and car rental company Didi. SoftBank also owns funds including other global investors called Vision Funds.