SoftBank rushed to plow its money into tech startups last year, seeing new opportunities in businesses like finance and health that were changing in the pandemic era.
Photo:
Takaaki Iwabu/Bloomberg News
TOKYO—Japanese technology investor SoftBank 9984 0.74%
Group Corp. Monday reported a loss of more than $23 billion in the three months to June after its investments in Vision Fund suffered from the global sell-off of technology stocks.
SoftBank reported a net loss of 3.16 trillion, equivalent to $23.4 billion, for the quarter ended June 30. That compares to a net loss of 2.1 trillion in the January-March quarter. For the full fiscal year ending March 31, SoftBank reported a record loss of ¥1.71 trillion.
The weak results reflect the recent decline in technology stocks around the world, fueled by rate hikes and China’s crackdown on tech companies.
Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. and DoorDash Inc.,
two US companies in which SoftBank has invested fell more than 40% in the April-June quarter.
In the three months to June, SoftBank reported an operating loss of ¥2.33 trillion, equivalent to $17.2 billion, for its Vision Fund 1, Vision Fund 2 and others. The Vision Fund 2 is currently SoftBank’s premier vehicle for investing in technology companies.
SoftBank rushed to plow its money into tech startups last year, seeing new opportunities in businesses like 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 in 183 companies last year, according to SoftBank’s filings.
In May, as losses from those investments began to surface, Mr. Son that he switched to a defensive policy and was more careful about investing new money.
Shares of SoftBank have been stable of late, rising 0.7% on Monday in Tokyo trading, which ended before the release of the results.
Write to Megumi Fujikawa at megumi.fujikawa@wsj.com
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