SoftBank’s Vision Fund seems to be recovering.
In the final three months of 2023, the tech investment division of the Japanese giant posted a $4 billion gain—the division’s highest quarterly return in nearly three years.
The rising stock prices of SoftBank’s publicly traded businesses, including as ridehailing service Didi, and the increasing valuation of TikTok owner ByteDance, which saw a 30% increase in yearly revenue to $110 billion in 2023, were the main drivers of the company’s outstanding performance, according to SoftBank.
For the third quarter in a row, the investment unit—which consists of SoftBank’s Latin America strategy, Vision Fund 1, and Vision Fund 2—saw positive returns.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son declared in June that he was prepared to go into “offense mode” and support artificial intelligence startups following a period of abstaining from fresh investments.
Since then, Vision Fund 2’s deployable capital has dropped from nearly $10 billion to $6.4 billion, but SoftBank hasn’t disclosed any significant investments in AI businesses.
In Wednesday’s after-hours trade, Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank made more money than it lost overall from its failed wager on the now-bankrupt WeWork.
After Arm disclosed revenue and earnings that well exceeded analysts’ projections, the chip designer’s stock shot up as much as 41% late on Wednesday. Ninety percent of Arm’s outstanding shares, or over 930 million shares, are still owned by SoftBank, which went public with the chip manufacturer in September.
SoftBank has not yet profited greatly from Arm’s post-IPO performance, even though the company’s shares have more than quadrupled since its September debut. The multinational semiconductor company’s IPO lockup period is scheduled to end next month. 90% of the business was owned by SoftBank at the time of the IPO.
Following the chip designer’s announcement of better-than-expected revenues and a robust revenue growth outlook, Arm shares saw a 50% spike on Thursday. On Thursday, SoftBank’s stock in Tokyo increased by 11%.
According to SoftBank, more than 90% of the companies in the Vision Fund portfolio still have more than a year and a half ahead of them. In 2023, the funds’ startups additionally raised an extra $8.2 billion in funding.
