SoftBank has faced headwinds in its Vision Fund investment division due to a fall in technology company valuations amid rising interest rates.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SoftBank recorded a record loss for its Vision Fund as a recent rally in tech stocks has done little to help another difficult year for its flagship investment unit.
The Japanese giant’s Vision Fund segment posted a 4.3 trillion Japanese yen ($32 billion) loss for its fiscal year ending Mar. 31 versus a 2.55 trillion yen loss in the same period a year before.
SoftBank posted an overall loss on investments at its Vision Funds of 5.28 trillion Japanese yen versus 3.43 trillion yen a year before. Despite a rally this year in tech stocks, they are broadly still lower than a year ago. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index declined about 11% during SoftBank’s fiscal year.
Overall, SoftBank posted a net loss of 970.14 billion yen for the fiscal year, narrower than the 1.7 trillion loss in the same period a year before.
Despite gains from exiting investments in high-profile companies like ride-hailing firm Uber, SoftBank said that it logged losses in areas including the share prices of Chinese artificial intelligence firm SenseTime and Indonesian ride-hailing and e-commerce company GoTo.
Over the past year, SoftBank has been exiting some of its highest-profile investments to raise cash. It narrowed its overall losses through sales of shares in T-Mobile and Alibaba. It continues to offload some of its shares in the latter company via a derivative called a forward contract, after Son made his fortune with an early investment in Alibaba more than two decades ago.
In August, it said it had sold its remaining stake in U.S. ride-hailing giant Uber.
The companies that SoftBank has invested in are well capitalized, according to the Japanese giant’s Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto. He said SoftBank has a number of companies ready to go public, which are valued at a combined $37 billion. He did not name these companies.
The brainchild of founder Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s Vision Fund comprises Vision Fund 1 and Vision Fund 2 and invests in high growth stocks, which have faced headwinds from rising interest rates globally causing investors to sell out of riskier equities such as tech.
Amid mounting losses, Son’s key ally and top SoftBank executive Rajeev Misra stepped back from some of his roles at the company. Misra was instrumental in the early days of the Vision Fund, which was launched in 2017.
That tactic appeared to be working in SoftBank’s fiscal fourth quarter from January to March, helped by the rally in tech stocks. SoftBank’s Vision Funds recorded investment losses 236.8 billion yen in the period, versus 730.3 billion yen in the quarter before.
SoftBank said it made $3.14 billion in new or follow-on investments in its fiscal year, down from $44.26 billion in the same period of a year prior.
During a press conference on Thursday, Goto said that it has been an “unstable” year marked by geopolitical risks and financial system instability, citing the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and issues at Credit Suisse.
“In the first quarter, we may be able to see some signs of improvement, however we are not expecting a fundamental resolution … for those issues,” Goto said.
He nevertheless said that artificial intelligence technology is making “dramatic progress” with the company, weighing up whether to stay in defense mode.
“With those situations should we just keep in defense or should we keep a balance with offense?” Goto asked.
SoftBank agreed to acquire Arm in 2016. Goto said that he was unable to discuss Arm at length due to the confidential filing in the U.S., but said preparation for the IPO is “going smoothly.”
Arm posted sales of 381.7 billion yen in the fiscal year, up more than 27% year-on-year. The company’s pre-tax income rose 18% year-on-year to 48.6 billion yen.
Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, attends the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Feb. 10, 2025.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices slid more than 5% on Wednesday after the company said it could incur charges of up to $800 million for exporting its MI308 products to China and other countries.
“The Company expects to apply for licenses but there is no assurance that licenses will be granted,” AMD said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The new U.S. license requirement, which applies to exports of certain semiconductor products, would hit inventory, purchase commitments and related reserves, AMD said in the filing.
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AMD is one of the companies that builds the hardware behind the artificial intelligence boom. The company claims its AMD Instinct MI300 Series accelerators are “uniquely well-suited to power even the most demanding AI and HPC workloads,” according to its website.
It generated a “record” revenue of $25.8 billion in 2025, according to its February earnings release, but the new export restrictions could slow growth.
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AMD one month stock chart.
Nvidia, an AMD competitor, released a similar disclosure on Tuesday. The company said it will take a quarterly charge of about $5.5 billion for exporting H20 graphics processing units.
China is Nvidia’s fourth-largest region by sales, after the U.S., Singapore, and Taiwan, according to the company’s annual report. More than half of its sales went to U.S. companies in its fiscal year that ended in January.
–CNBC’s Kif Leswing and Jordan Novet contributed to this report.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers the keynote for the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, on March 18, 2025.
Brittany Hosea-small | Reuters
Technology stocks declined Wednesday, led by a 5% drop in Nvidia, as the chipmaking sector signaled that President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariff plans could hamper demand and growth.
Nvidia revealed in a filing Tuesday that it will take a $5.5 billion charge tied to exporting its H20 graphics processing units to China and other countries and said that the government will require a license to ship the chips there and other destinations.
The chip was designed specifically for China use during President Joe Biden’s administration to meet U.S. export restrictions barring the sale of advanced AI processors, which totaled an estimated $12 billion to $15 billion in revenue in 2024. Advanced Micro Devices said in a filing Wednesday that the latest export controls on its MI308 products could lead to an $800 million hit.
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Chipmaking stocks have struggled in the wake of President Donald Trump’s sweeping U.S. trade restrictions, sparked by fears that higher tariffs will stifle demand.
The disclosures from Nvidia and AMD are the first major signs that Trump’s fierce battle with China could significantly hamper chip growth. The administration has made some exemptions for electronics, including semiconductors, but has warned that separate tariffs could come down the road.
Adding to the sector worries was a disappointing print from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML. The company missed order expectations and said that tariff restrictions create demand uncertainty. Shares fell about 5%.
Lyft logo is seen in this illustration taken June 27, 2022.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
U.S. ride-hailing firm Lyft on Wednesday announced that it’s buying European taxi app Free Now in a 175 million euro ($199 million) deal.
The company said that the acquisition — Lyft’s first in Europe — is expected to close in the second half of 2025, and that, once combined, the two companies will serve over 50 million combined annual users.
Founded in 2009 as myTaxi, Free Now is a ride-hailing platform headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company has been jointly owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2019.
The app is available in over 150 cities across nine countries, including Ireland, the U.K., Germany and France. Beyond traditional taxi and ride-hailing services, Free Now also offers other mobility options including e-scooters, e-mopeds and e-bikes.
Free Now has been joint-owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2016.
The startup is earnings-positive on the basis of Earnings Before Interest, Debt and Amortization, generating gross bookings over 1 billion euros in 2024, according to a company fact sheet.
Acquiring Free Now will give Lyft a route to expand into the highly competitive European ride-hailing market, where it will come up against the likes of Uber, Estonia’s Bolt and Israel’s Gett.
Lyft’s closest domestic rival, Uber, has a lengthy head start on the firm, having first launched in the U.K. back in 2012. It has since been beset by a series of regulatory issues.
London’s transport regulators tried to ban Uber two times over safety concerns. The company was eventually awarded a fresh license to continue operating in the city in 2022.