mode’

later this year.

Yields Mixed Quarter

Without the fillip from Arm, the picture was less rosy with the company’s Vision Funds reporting a combined loss of 13bn yen.

The investment giant has been in “defence mode” since May 2022 after tech valuations crashed due to sharply higher interest rates and jitters that hit the global banking sector. But this June, founder and CEO Masayoshi Son said he was planning to shift to “offence” mode amid excitement over advances in artificial intelligence.

That shift was borne out in the first-quarter results, with chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto telling reporters yesterday that the company was “timidly” embarking on selective new investments.

Softbank made investments totalling $1.8bn in the quarter. That’s after paring them right back to around $500m for the previous three quarters.

Shares were trading up around 2.5 per cent yesterday afternoon.