World News | Japanese Tech Giant SoftBank Records Its First Profit in 4 Years

Tokyo, May 13 (AP) Japanese technology company SoftBank Group posted its first profit in four years Tuesday, as it raked in gains from its investment portfolios.

SoftBank warned of major uncertainties ahead because of President Donald Trump's tariff policies, tensions between the US and China, and other global conflicts.

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Tokyo-based Softbank's profit for the fiscal year through March totalled 1.15 trillion yen (USD 7.8 billion), a reversal from the 227.6 billion yen loss it racked up the previous year.

Annual sales climbed seven per cent to 7.2 trillion yen (USD 49 billion).

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SoftBank has a wide-ranging partnership with OpenAI, the US artificial intelligence research organisation behind ChatGPT. It said it remains focused on promoting technology related to artificial intelligence.

The company said it will continue to aggressively invest in new AI companies like Glean and Helion, both US companies.

SoftBank also recently decided to acquire the total equity of Ampere, a US cloud-and AI-focused semiconductor design company, for USD 6.5 billion. It expects to complete the transaction in the second half of this year.

Its investments include stakes in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and T-Mobile, a European mobile communications outfit. Both gained value over the latest period.

Also helping its bottom line were strong results and royalties at Arm, a British semiconductor and software design company in which SoftBank is a major investor.

The company also logged gains from its SoftBank Vision Funds.

SoftBank invests in various companies, including ByteDance, the Chinese multinational that's behind TikTok, and PayPay, a popular Japanese mobile payment application.

SoftBank said it was planning an IPO for PayPay. Launched in 2018, PayPay is now used by more than 68 million people, according to SoftBank. Japan's population is about 125 million. (AP)

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