SoftBank's Quarterly Net Profit Exceeds Expectations by Six Times, OpenAI Holdings Gain $45 Billion in Unrealized Profit

SoftBank Group Corporation announced its latest financial report, with performance far exceeding market expectations.

In the fourth quarter, SoftBank's net profit reached 1.83 trillion yen, more than six times the market estimate of 295.18 billion yen, with net sales amounting to 2.08 trillion yen, slightly above the market estimate of 2.04 trillion yen.

Looking at the full year, SoftBank achieved a net profit of 5.00 trillion yen, about 50% higher than the market estimate of 3.33 trillion yen, with net sales of 7.80 trillion yen, essentially in line with the market expectation of 7.75 trillion yen.

The core driver of the significant outperformance is the Vision Fund. The Vision Fund's investment income for the year reached a towering 6.99 trillion yen, reflecting the strong returns on its technology assets. As of the end of March, the cumulative investment income from OpenAI amounted to 45 billion US dollars.

In terms of capital deployment, SoftBank has further increased its betting. SoftBank disclosed that it completed a total of 20 billion US dollars in borrowings in April 2026, with the funds raised mainly used for investment in OpenAI, of which 2.5 billion US dollars were repaid in the same month. Founder Masayoshi Son had previously committed to increasing SoftBank's total investment in OpenAI to 64.6 billion US dollars by the end of the year.

In terms of shareholder returns, SoftBank expects to distribute a dividend of 11.00 yen per share for the full year, in line with market expectations.