TOPIC

/ company

Softbank

SoftBank is a Japanese telecommunications and internet company with operations spanning broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, the internet, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses.<br />

Chairman / President

Masayoshi Son

CEO / Managing Director

Masayoshi Son

CFO / Finance Director

Yoshimitsu Goto

Industry

Conglomerate

Website

softbank.jp

Headquarters address

SoftBank Group Corp.,1-9-1 Higashi-Shimbashi,Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-7303,Japan

Stock Code

TSE:9984

Year founded

1981

Foxconn

Taiwan’s Foxconn expands AI hardware push with OpenAI deal

Foxconn sees profits soar after shifting its focus from low-margin iPhone assembly to AI servers that are now in huge demand.

21 Nov 2025 - 2:52PM

Nvidia

Nvidia’s latest earnings run into a market suddenly afraid of AI spending

19 Nov 2025 - 2:36PM

Artificial intelligence

SoftBank shares dive after Nvidia sale spooks AI-wary market

12 Nov 2025 - 10:10AM

Semiconductors

Intel beats 3rd-quarter profit estimates as cost cuts, investments pay off

Intel forecast current-quarter revenue between US$12.8 billion and US$13.8 billion, compared with analysts’ estimates of US$13.37 billion.

24 Oct 2025 - 11:32AM

US-China tech war

China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race

The AI war is increasingly waged among ‘hyperscalers’ – companies with full-stack capabilities across software, hardware and applications.

11 Oct 2025 - 12:05PMvideocam

Semiconductors

Intel unveils new chip in make-or-break moment for turnaround bid

The company needs to show that its new products will win back lost market share and attract customers to its foundry division.

10 Oct 2025 - 10:07AM

Robotics

SoftBank strikes deal to acquire ABB’s robotics business for US$5.4 billion

The deal marks a significant push by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son into robotics, as he expands investment after a period of retrenchment.

8 Oct 2025 - 3:50PM

ABB’s robotics business generated sales of US$2.3 billion in 2024, equivalent to 7 per cent of the Swiss firm’s total revenue. Photo: Shutterstock

OpenAI

OpenAI valuation hits US$500 billion, passes SpaceX as world’s largest start-up

San Francisco-based OpenAI completes a deal to help employees sell about US$6.6 billion of the firm’s stock to investors.

2 Oct 2025 - 4:16PM

Artificial intelligence

OpenAI expands Stargate with 5 new data centre sites across US

The expansion brings the companies closer to their goal of investing US$500 billion in domestic data centres and AI infrastructure.

24 Sep 2025 - 11:14AM

Semiconductors

Nvidia bets big on Intel with US$5 billion stake, chip partnership

The move comes just weeks after the White House engineered a deal for the US to take a 10 per cent stake in Intel.

19 Sep 2025 - 9:54AM

Nvidia said it will invest US5 billion in Intel. Photo: Reuters

United States

Trump says Intel has agreed to deal for US to take 10% equity stake

The move marks a clear change of direction just weeks after Trump called for CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign over his ties to Chinese firms.

23 Aug 2025 - 7:45AMvideocam

Artificial intelligence

OpenAI sees firm selling AI data centre services to offset ChatGPT costs

The start-up also generated US$1 billion in revenue in July, marking its first month hitting that milestone, finance chief Sarah Friar says.

21 Aug 2025 - 12:00PM

Intel

Chipmaker Intel’s US$24 billion rally sends valuation to dotcom levels

That surge comes on the back of reports that the US is eyeing a potential stake in Intel and SoftBank’s plans for a US$2 billion investment.

20 Aug 2025 - 4:01PM

Semiconductors

Japan’s SoftBank to invest US$2 billion in Intel as part of US push

SoftBank has been expanding its US footprint, including a recent deal to buy Foxconn’s electric vehicle plant in Ohio.

19 Aug 2025 - 9:43AM

Artificial intelligence

AI start-up Perplexity makes bold bid for Google’s Chrome browser

The US$34.5 billion unsolicited offer comes after OpenAI, Yahoo and Apollo Global Management have also expressed interest in Chrome.

13 Aug 2025 - 10:47AM

Google’s Bay View campus in Mountain View, California. Photo: AFP

IPO

SoftBank selects banks for US IPO of payments app amid tech rebound

US IPO activity has gained momentum in a long-awaited rebound, supported by strong tech earnings and signs of progress in trade talks.

11 Aug 2025 - 10:31AM

OpenAI

OpenAI in talks for share sale at US$500 billion valuation, sources say

If the deal goes ahead, it would elevate OpenAI’s valuation on paper by two-thirds to US$500 billion, making it one of the world’s largest privately held companies.

6 Aug 2025 - 12:18PM

Artificial intelligence

Shanghai targets 5 new data centres as China boosts AI capacity

China’s computing power reached 246 exaflops as of June 2024, placing it second only to the US, according to government data.

5 Aug 2025 - 7:00PM

Shanghai plans to build five new data centres by the end of this year. Photo: EPA

Semiconductors

SoftBank’s growing stakes in Nvidia and TSMC show focus on AI gear

Son eyes a more central role in the spread of AI with SoftBank’s access to some of the semiconductor supply chain’s most lucrative parts.

5 Aug 2025 - 5:07PM

Indonesia

Indonesia arrests founder of high-flying fish start-up over fraud scandal

An investigation revealed aquaculture start-up eFishery claimed revenues of over US$500 million more than its true earnings.

5 Aug 2025 - 2:24PM

Artificial intelligence

OpenAI to rent massive amount of computing power from Oracle

Totalling about 4.5 gigawatts, the unprecedented sum of energy could power millions of homes.

3 Jul 2025 - 11:45AM

Oracle and OpenAI are expanding their Stargate deal. Photo: AP

Artificial intelligence

A sun-baked ‘Shenzhen’? SoftBank pitches TSMC on US$1 trillion AI hub in Arizona

Son envisions a version of China’s manufacturing hub of Shenzhen that would bring high-tech manufacturing to the US, sources told Bloomberg.

20 Jun 2025 - 4:29PM

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son speaks during the Future Investment Initiative Institute Priority Summit in Miami Beach, Florida, on February 21. Photo: AFP

Artificial intelligence

Silicon Valley venture capitalists sit back from investing in AI

Amid sky-high valuations, even major venture capital firms can no longer compete with deep-pocketed backers like SoftBank and Microsoft.

2 Jun 2025 - 12:09PMvideocam

Semiconductors

Nvidia CEO blasts US AI chip restrictions on China as a ‘failure’

‘Power is quite cost-effective in China. And there’s plenty of land. And so the ban on H20 is not effective,’ Jensen Huang told reporters at Computex.

21 May 2025 - 4:13PMvideocam

E-commerce

China’s Meituan to bring Keeta food delivery to Brazil under US$1 billion deal

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva presided over the deal-signing event in Beijing.

13 May 2025 - 2:08PM

Meituan founder and CEO Wang Xing (left) meets Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Beijing on Monday. Photo: Handout

Artificial intelligence

Elon Musk-Sam Altman fight over OpenAI overhaul set for March trial

A US federal judge called for an expedited trial on the ‘core’ claim from Musk’s 2024 lawsuit that OpenAI’s restructuring plan is unlawful.

5 Apr 2025 - 11:52AM

Elon Musk, left, and Sam Altman worked together to found OpenAI in 2015. Photo: Shutterstock

Artificial intelligence

OpenAI to build open AI model amid competition from Meta and DeepSeek

Announcement marks a strategic shift by OpenAI, which until now has been a fierce defender of closed, proprietary models.

1 Apr 2025 - 11:22AMvideocam

Semiconductors

SoftBank Group to acquire Ampere Computing in US$6.5 billion AI-focused deal

Ampere makes data centre central processing unit (CPU) chips based on a computing architecture from Arm Holdings.

20 Mar 2025 - 10:52AM

Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.

SUPPORT NOW