SoftBank Group posted a fiscal second-quarter net loss of 1.12 trillion yen ($7 billion) on Tuesday, reversing a 2.5 trillion yen profit from a year earlier.
Data Center Procurement Hits Earnings
The Japanese investment giant booked a 597.2 billion yen ($3.7 billion) loss in the six months ending on Sept. 30 due to changes in procurement plans for power generation equipment for artificial intelligence data center projects in the United States, as reported by CNBC.
To guard against anticipated shortages of power infrastructure, Silver Bands 7 LLC—an affiliate backed by SoftBank Vision Fund II-2 and SoftBank Group—had locked in manufacturing allotments and finalized purchase agreements for generating equipment.
The total financial impact consisted of $2.85 billion in non-refundable prepayments alongside $0.88 billion tied to settlement expenses and contract alterations. CFO Yoshimitsu Goto explained during the earnings briefing on November 10, 2026, that as a result of reviewing the entire project, we revisited our procurement strategy. Vendors granted SoftBank reductions totaling up to $2.1 billion, and the remaining $6.6 billion will be absorbed by initiatives that include the ongoing Ports Pike endeavor in Ohio.
During SoftBank Group’s earnings presentation on November 10, 2026, covering the second fiscal quarter from July to September 2026 within the year ending March 2027, CFO Yoshimitsu Goto stated that investment returns reached 1.7 trillion yen (roughly $10.7 billion) while the half-year net result registered an 80 million yen deficit.
This downward shift from the preceding year’s record-setting investment gains was further weighed down by roughly 600 billion yen ($3.8 billion) in write-downs on power equipment acquisitions for American data facilities, driving the net deficit to 770 billion yen (around $4.9 billion) and wiping out the previous year’s positive returns.
Reflecting the stock price decline since the end of September, current net asset value has fallen to 44.7 trillion yen (approximately $282.0 billion), though the company’s most important metric, net asset value, rose 20 trillion yen from the prior fiscal year-end to a record 59.8 trillion yen (approximately $377.2 billion).
![[9984.T FY2026 Q2 Earnings Call] SoftBank Group Posts ¥770 Billion Net Loss but Record NAV of ¥59.8 Trillion](https://img.biggo.com/MXWFfTiR3KPaJsGGFDCZtp_1pFjEe7sPbvctEsPSX_M/fit/1200/0/sm/0/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWcuYmdvLm9uZS9uZXdzLWltYWdlL2Vhcm5pbmdzX2NhcmQvMjAyNi0xMS9KUF85OTg0LlRfMjAyNi0xMS0xMF8xNzk0MzIwOTQxLndlYnA.jpg "Photo: finance.biggo.com")
Management noted that while the short term is a time to wait and see, there is no change to the medium- to long-term artificial intelligence investment strategy.
A SoftBank executive explained during the company’s earnings call that bridge investments were made in advance to secure power generation equipment in anticipation of shortages. Cumulative procurement payments totaled $9.5 billion from the previous fiscal year through September 30, 2026, with $6.6 billion remaining allocated to equipment purchases for the PORTS-Pike power-generation project and other projects at quarter-end.
Over the upcoming decade, Silver Bands 7 secured the potential for up to $2.1 billion in rebates on future hardware purchases upon meeting specific criteria, though SoftBank recorded no corresponding asset on its balance sheet given that the final sum remained uncertain.
The filing described a change in equipment plans across U.S. projects, including Ohio, where Pike County’s October update described a phased development led by SB Energy with OpenAI as its main tenant, featuring natural gas generation and new transmission lines coming online in phases beginning in 2028.
Financing Costs Rise as Investment Gains Fall
Total investment gains fell 56.0% year over year to 1.73 trillion yen for the six-month period, while finance costs more than doubled to 790.7 billion yen, as noted by Unite.
The expansion in financing expenses stemmed from larger bond and loan obligations, elevated interest rates, and the immediate expensing of unamortized borrowing costs triggered by early bridge loan payoffs. Net interest-bearing debt reached 10.8 trillion yen ($68 billion) at the end of June, compared with 6.6 trillion yen a year earlier, according to Tekedia.
As reported by CNBC, the Vision Fund division reversed into an 81.58 billion yen deficit during the fiscal second quarter, contrasting with a 2.38 trillion yen surplus during the same period a year prior. Despite generating a $1.3 billion profit from its stake in ByteDance, Vision Fund 1 suffered a $20 million investment loss for the period due to falling valuations among publicly traded holdings like Grab and Coupang.
The wider Vision Funds division generated 85.45 billion yen in investment returns—a steep decline from the 2.81 trillion yen reported a year earlier—with Vision Fund 2 contributing an 89.26 billion yen gain while Vision Fund 1 posted a 3.86 billion yen investment loss.
Derivatives produced a 433.3 billion yen loss, against a 208.1 billion gain previously. During the second fiscal quarter, SoftBank raised 8.9 trillion yen ($56.5 billion)—representing its largest-ever quarterly fundraising haul—through debt issuances and loans to back its investments, while dedicating 790.7 billion yen ($5.0 billion) to financing expenses during the fiscal half, primarily consisting of borrowing interest.
In September, the company sold a record $11.1 billion of high-yield bonds at yields as high as 9.75%, while its margin loan backed by Arm Holdings shares was reportedly raised to $25 billion, with 769.0 million Arm shares pledged behind the loan.
OpenAI and Infrastructure Strategy
As of the end of September, SoftBank’s cumulative investment in OpenAI stood at $54.6 billion, with a fair value of $99.6 billion and a cumulative investment gain of $45 billion, according to Invezz. A SoftBank executive highlighted the chatbot’s performance during the earnings call, stating that ChatGPT has been continuously a weapon of OpenAI, especially for consumers,
as cited by CNBC.
As reported by CNBC, SoftBank outlined a 20-year agreement to lease eight gigawatts of IT capacity to OpenAI at an Ohio data center development, alongside a joint commitment with Malaysia’s PETROS and Grab to inject an initial $1.85 billion into artificial intelligence infrastructure within Malaysia.
Prior to releasing its financial results, SoftBank Group partnered with Grab and Malaysia’s PETROS to deploy an initial $1.85 billion toward Malaysian AI infrastructure, establishing a long-term goal of building at least five gigawatts of computing power.
Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a note that a sustained stock price decline below $200 would increase pressure on SoftBank’s finances, following a period where SoftBank shares hit an all-time high of 9,074 yen at the start of June, up more than double from the start of the year.
Earlier coverage: SoftBank Reports $7.1 Billion Loss After U.S. Data Center Writedown