London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Jan 12, 2026

SoftBank reports record $23B quarterly loss as tech downturn hits

SoftBank reports record $23B quarterly loss as tech downturn hits

Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. on Monday reported a record quarterly loss of more than $23 billion after its Vision Fund investments suffered from the global selloff in technology shares.

The April-June loss was about 1 1/2 times the previous record set just three months earlier in the January-March quarter.

The weak results reflect the fall in technology shares around the globe recently, sparked by interest-rate increases and China's crackdown on tech companies.

Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. and DoorDash Inc., two U.S. companies in which SoftBank has invested, fell more than 40% during the April-June quarter. SoftBank said its Vision Fund 1 has fully exited its position in Uber.

SoftBank rushed to plow its money into tech startups last year, seeing new opportunities in businesses such as finance and health that were changing in the pandemic era. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son and his team invested $38 billion from SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 into 183 companies last year, according to SoftBank's filings.

On Monday, Mr. Son said he got overexcited during the period when tech valuations were booming. "When we were turning out big profits, I became somewhat delirious, and looking back at myself now, I am quite embarrassed and remorseful," he said.

In May, as the losses from those investments began to emerge, Mr. Son said he was switching to a defensive policy.

He said Monday that SoftBank's Vision Funds approved about $600 million in investments in the April-June quarter, down from a peak of $20.6 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. He said the caution would continue, even though the market's decline may make some companies a bargain.

"Now seems like the perfect time to invest when the stock market is down so much, and I have the urge to do so, but if I act on it, we could suffer a blow that would be irreversible, and that is unacceptable," he said.

SoftBank said it turned some of its older investments into cash to shore up its finances. It said it raised $10.49 billion using its shares in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. SoftBank used what it calls prepaid forward contracts, in which it gets cash upfront from its lenders and promises to settle the contract later either with cash or with Alibaba shares.

FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2018, file photo, people walk past in front of a SoftBank shop at Ginza shopping district in Tokyo. SoftBank's shares have been steady recently and rose 0.7% on Monday in Tokyo trading, which ended before the release of the res


SoftBank reports its results in yen. The net loss in the April-June quarter was Yen3.16 trillion, equivalent to $23.4 billion at the current exchange rate. That compares with a net loss of Yen2.1 trillion in the January-March quarter. For SoftBank's full fiscal year ended March 31, it reported a loss of Yen1.71 trillion, a record annual figure, equivalent to $12.7 billion at the current rate.

SoftBank's shares have been steady recently and rose 0.7% on Monday in Tokyo trading, which ended before the release of the results.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Meghan Markle Likely to Return to UK Only if Harry Secures Official Security Cover
UAE Restricts Funding for Emiratis to Study in UK Amid Fears Over Muslim Brotherhood Influence
EU Seeks ‘Farage Clause’ in Brexit Reset Talks to Safeguard Long-Term Agreement Stability
Starmer’s Push to Rally Support for Action Against Elon Musk’s X Faces Setback as Canada Shuns Ban
UK Free School Meals Expansion Faces Political and Budgetary Delays
EU Seeks ‘Farage Clause’ in Brexit Reset Talks With Britain
Germany Hit by Major Airport Strikes Disrupting European Travel
Prince Harry Seeks King Charles’ Support to Open Invictus Games on UK Return
Washington Holds Back as Britain and France Signal Willingness to Deploy Troops in Postwar Ukraine
Elon Musk Accuses UK Government of Suppressing Free Speech as X Faces Potential Ban Over AI-Generated Content
Russia Deploys Hypersonic Missile in Strike on Ukraine
OpenAI and SoftBank Commit One Billion Dollars to Energy and Data Centre Supplier
UK Prime Minister Starmer Reaffirms Support for Danish Sovereignty Over Greenland Amid U.S. Pressure
UK Support Bolsters U.S. Seizure of Russian-Flagged Tanker Marinera in Atlantic Strike on Sanctions Evasion
The Claim That Maduro’s Capture and Trial Violate International Law Is Either Legally Illiterate—or Deliberately Deceptive
UK Data Watchdog Probes Elon Musk’s X Over AI-Generated Grok Images Amid Surge in Non-Consensual Outputs
Prince Harry to Return to UK for Court Hearing Without Plans to Meet King Charles III
UK Confirms Support for US Seizure of Russian-Flagged Oil Tanker in North Atlantic
Béla Tarr, Visionary Hungarian Filmmaker, Dies at Seventy After Long Illness
UK and France Pledge Military Hubs Across Ukraine in Post-Ceasefire Security Plan
Prince Harry Poised to Regain UK Security Cover, Clearing Way for Family Visits
UK Junk Food Advertising Ban Faces Major Loophole Allowing Brand-Only Promotions
Maduro’s Arrest Without The Hague Tests International Law—and Trump’s Willingness to Break It
German Intelligence Secretly Intercepted Obama’s Air Force One Communications
The U.S. State Department’s account in Persian: “President Trump is a man of action. If you didn’t know it until now, now you do—do not play games with President Trump.”
Fake Mainstream Media Double Standard: Elon Musk Versus Mamdani
HSBC Leads 2026 Mortgage Rate Cuts as UK Lending Costs Ease
US Joint Chiefs Chairman Outlines How Operation Absolute Resolve Was Carried Out in Venezuela
Starmer Welcomes End of Maduro Era While Stressing International Law and UK Non-Involvement
Korean Beauty Turns Viral Skincare Into a Global Export Engine
UK Confirms Non-Involvement in U.S. Military Action Against Venezuela
UK Terror Watchdog Calls for Australian-Style Social Media Ban to Protect Teenagers
Iranian Protests Intensify as Another Revolutionary Guard Member Is Killed and Khamenei Blames the West
Delta Force Identified as Unit Behind U.S. Operation That Captured Venezuela’s President
Europe’s Luxury Sanctions Punish Russian Consumers While a Sanctions-Circumvention Industry Thrives
Berkshire’s Buffett-to-Abel Transition Tests Whether a One-Man Trust Model Can Survive as a System
Fraud in European Central Bank: Lagarde’s Hidden Pay Premium Exposes a Transparency Crisis at the European Central Bank
Trump Announces U.S. Large-Scale Strike on Venezuela, Declares President Maduro and Wife Captured
Tesla Loses EV Crown to China’s BYD After Annual Deliveries Decline in 2025
UK Manufacturing Growth Reaches 15-Month Peak as Output and Orders Improve in December
Beijing Threatened to Scrap UK–China Trade Talks After British Minister’s Taiwan Visit
Newly Released Files Reveal Tony Blair Pressured Officials Over Iraq Death Case Involving UK Soldiers
Top Stocks and Themes to Watch in 2026 as Markets Enter New Year with Fresh Momentum
No UK Curfew Ordered as Deepfake TikTok Falsely Attributes Decree to Prime Minister Starmer
Europe’s Largest Defence Groups Set to Return Nearly Five Billion Dollars to Shareholders in Twenty Twenty-Five
Abu Dhabi ‘Capital of Capital’: How Abu Dhabi Rose as a Sovereign Wealth Power
Diamonds Are Powering a New Quantum Revolution
Trump Threatens Strikes Against Iran if Nuclear Programme Is Restarted
Apple Escalates Legal Fight by Appealing £1.5 Billion UK Ruling Over App Store Fees
UK Debt Levels Sit Mid-Range Among Advanced Economies Despite Rising Pressures
×