TOKYO: SoftBank Group said today that it plunged back into the red for the three months to December, following an announcement that it will form a joint venture with US tech giant OpenAI.
The company’s results often swing dramatically because it invests heavily in tech startups and semiconductor firms, whose share prices are volatile.
The tech investor logged ¥369 billion (US$2.4 billion) in net losses for October-December, compared with a profit of ¥950 billion from a year earlier.
A recent joint statement by SoftBank Group and OpenAI said the former will “spend US$3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across its group companies”.
SoftBank and OpenAI are already working together on the Stargate drive announced in January by US President Donald Trump to invest up to US$500 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the US.