Japan’s Softbank Group Corp yesterday said it logged an eightfold jump in net profit in the six months to September thanks to strong returns from its investment funds.
Net profit rose to ¥840 billion (US$7.4 billion) from ¥103 billion in the same period last year, the Japanese mobile giant and IT investor said.
The rise was largely driven by gains of ¥649 billion from the Softbank Vision Fund, compared with ¥194 billion in the previous period.
Under chief executive officer Masayoshi Son, Softbank, which started as a software firm, has increasingly been seen as an investment firm, ploughing funds into a broad range of companies and projects outside its core business.
It has completed deals with the likes of French robotics firm Aldebaran and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴).
Nearly half of the money in the Softbank Vision Fund comes from Saudi Arabia and there has been a pledge of another US$45 billion this year.
That gives the Saudis at least an indirect role in some of the hottest companies in the tech sector, including Uber Technologies Inc, Slack Technologies Inc, WeWork Cos and Nvidia Corp.
However, Son was missing from a high-profile Saudi investment forum last month along with dozens of global business titans amid reports that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
The company’s ties with the kingdom have been put into sharp relief with the Khashoggi scandal and Softbank shares dropped sharply when the news broke.
Son yesterday condemned the killing of Khashoggi, but said that he would continue to do business with Saudi Arabia.
“We were deeply saddened by the news of Mr Khashoggi’s murder and condemn this act against humanity and also journalism and free speech. This was a horrific and deeply regrettable act,” Son said in his first comments on the killing.
He said he had sought explanations from senior Saudi officials over the killing, adding: “We want to see those responsible held accountable.”
Nevertheless, he said the firm took seriously its “obligation” to help the Saudi people “manage their financial resources and diversify their economy.”
Softbank has also made high-profile investments in the autonomous vehicles sector, last month announcing a tie-up with automaker Toyota Motor Corp for “new mobility services” such as meal deliveries.
Earlier this year, General Motors Co (GM) said the Japanese firm was investing US$2.25 billion in its autonomous car program in exchange for a stake in the venture.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the