SoftBank Q1: Intel Gain Carries Profit, OpenAI Mark Flat

SoftBank Beat Its Forecast Almost Threefold. The Gain Came From Intel, and OpenAI Moved Nothing.

Net income of ¥347.3bn against a ¥120bn consensus, driven by a ¥1.333trn writeup on Intel shares. The position everyone watches — $64.6bn committed to OpenAI — produced neither a gain nor a loss.

Aug 6, 2026Source: Quartz

SoftBank Group reported first-quarter net income of ¥347.3bn — roughly $2.2bn — on 6 August, against an analyst consensus of ¥120.23bn. The beat is close to threefold. The same figure is down about 18% from a year earlier.

Where it came from

A single position. SoftBank booked a ¥1.333trn (about $8.45bn) investment gain on Intel, whose shares rose 216% during the quarter. A stake taken as a strategic bet on domestic US fabrication became the quarter's entire earnings story.

The position that did nothing

OpenAI — the investment SoftBank's equity story is built on — recorded no gain or loss. SoftBank has committed $64.6bn cumulatively, including $10bn tranches in April and July as part of a $30bn additional investment, with the next instalment expected in October. A flat mark means no new round repriced it inside the quarter.

The funds

Vision Funds gained $1.7bn, driven by a $2.2bn increase in the value of the ByteDance stake — meaning the rest of the portfolio was net negative.

How to read it

SoftBank's reported earnings are marks, not cash. This quarter, a listed semiconductor holding did the work while the largest private AI position stood still — and the year-on-year decline says last year's marks were richer.

Why It Matters

SoftBank is the largest single financial channel into OpenAI, and a quarter in which that stake moves by zero while a chip stock carries the whole result shows how little of the AI trade is being repriced by operating performance.