{"text":[[{"start":9.7,"text":"An $8bn gain on SoftBank’s stake in Intel helped Masayoshi Son’s tech group beat analysts’ expectations despite a decline in first-quarter profit."}],[{"start":19.82,"text":"The Japanese company said on Thursday that net profit was ¥347.3bn ($2.2bn) in the three months to June, ahead of the ¥148.4bn analysts had expected, according to LSEG data, but down 17.7 per cent on the same period last year."}],[{"start":38.8,"text":"SoftBank booked a ¥1.3tn ($8.2bn) gain on its investment in Intel, in which it agreed to invest $2bn last year at $23 a share."}],[{"start":49.72,"text":"Intel shares now trade above $100 after the US chip company’s stock soared more than 150 per cent this year."}],[{"start":57.16,"text":"SoftBank also made a ¥358.4bn investment gain on its stake in ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, which is also pouring money into AI."}],[{"start":66.82,"text":"The first-quarter profit slide follows records set in recent quarters by SoftBank after successive revaluations of its stake in OpenAI."}],[{"start":75.24,"text":"Son has been a staunch backer of OpenAI chief Sam Altman, with $64.6bn committed by SoftBank, for an eventual stake of roughly 13 per cent once it has completed its most recent investment round in October."}],[{"start":89,"text":"This quarter, SoftBank’s tech-heavy investment vehicles, called the Vision Funds, which house its ByteDance and OpenAI stakes, made a gain on investments of ¥255.8bn in the quarter."}],[{"start":100.68,"text":"However, the company said it recorded no investment loss or gain related to OpenAI in the quarter. The performance of recently floated payments company PayPay also weighed on the result."}],[{"start":112.4,"text":"Through SoftBank’s ownership of UK chip designer Arm, its stake in OpenAI, as well as in robotics, data centre and energy businesses, Son has methodically put himself and his company at the heart of the AI boom."}],[{"start":125.76,"text":"As OpenAI heads towards a critical initial public offering, and SoftBank tries to bring its own companies, including robotics venture Roze, to market, the stakes for Son are rising — along with the leverage necessary to continue financing his ambitions."}],[{"start":140.24,"text":"The group has already put in place $40bn in bridge loans for its latest investment in OpenAI and has margin loans against its near-90 per cent stake in Arm."}],[{"start":150.98,"text":"Finance chief Yoshimitsu Goto said on Thursday that the group’s loan-to-value ratio — a measure of net debt against the value of its holdings — stood at 13 per cent at the end of June, down from 17 per cent in March."}],[{"start":163.56,"text":"The company tries to keep the ratio below 25 per cent in “normal circumstances”. Goto said the figure was now perhaps “too safe”, meaning that SoftBank may need to “invest more”."}],[{"start":175.6,"text":"SoftBank’s share price, like its earnings, tends to be highly volatile, buffeted by the outlook for the wider semiconductor and AI sector and by expectations for OpenAI’s growth rate and the timing of its listing."}],[{"start":187.5,"text":"It briefly became Japan’s most valuable company at the start of June, as the shares surged, but has since fallen back into third place, behind megabank MUFG and carmaker Toyota. SoftBank’s share price is still up 23 per cent this year, but is down about a third since last year’s peak."}],[{"start":210.72,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1786007441_7883.mp3"}