SoftBank rides AI boom to post $1.6 billion net profit

TOKYO: Japan’s SoftBank Group said Thursday that net profit rebounded year-on-year in the third quarter as it reaped the rewards of its investment in artificial intelligence.

The firm, a major backer of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, logged net profit of 248.6 billion yen ($1.6 billion), after a net loss of 370 billion yen a year earlier.

After suffering massive losses across its broad tech portfolio in recent years, SoftBank has turned things around by diving into the fast-growing AI sector.

It announced in December that its stake in OpenAI is now around 11 percent after completing the second stage of a $41 billion investment.

The group’s earnings often swing dramatically because it invests heavily in tech start-ups and semiconductor firms, whose stocks are volatile.