SoftBank Group Corp.

SoftBank Group Corp. began as SOFTBANK Japan, founded by Masayoshi Son on 3 September 1981. According to the company's annual report, it started as a distributor of packaged PC software, and Son envisioned it, as the name says, as a "software bank" that would build infrastructure for the information-driven society. It started a publishing business in 1982. Its headquarters are at Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba in Minato, Tokyo; it is a pure holding company with 276 employees of its own, 73,677 on a consolidated basis, and 1,077 subsidiaries (all at the end of March 2026).

A history of switching to each era's leader

The annual report describes the company's history as a sequence of partnerships with the defining companies of each era, as the centre of the information revolution moved from PC software to the internet, broadband, smartphones and now AI.

What it buys it does not always keep. According to NVIDIA's announcement, SoftBank agreed on 13 September 2020 to sell Arm to NVIDIA, but the deal was terminated on 7 February 2022 because of regulatory challenges, and SoftBank switched to preparing a public offering. In robotics, group company SoftBank Mobile unveiled the humanoid robot Pepper, developed with Aldebaran of France, on 5 June 2014; in June 2017 SoftBank agreed to acquire Boston Dynamics from Alphabet, and in June 2021 Hyundai Motor Group completed its acquisition of the company from SoftBank.

Concentrating on OpenAI and AI infrastructure

According to the annual report, the company made its first investment in OpenAI in September 2024, and its cumulative investment reached US$34.6 billion by the end of March 2026 (the end of its fiscal 2025). In February 2026 it decided on a further US$30 billion, which it expects to bring the total to US$64.6 billion and its ownership to about 13% once completed.

The commitment is not only money. Stargate, announced in January 2025 with OpenAI and others, is a plan to build AI infrastructure in the US for OpenAI, and the company says that in January 2026 a subsidiary entered into a strategic partnership with OpenAI for a 1.2 GW AI data-centre project in Milam County, Texas.

Key events

• 3 September 1981: SOFTBANK Japan founded.
• 1996: Yahoo! JAPAN launched.
• 2000: Invests in Alibaba.
• 2006: Acquires Vodafone K.K.
• 2013: Acquires Sprint.
• June 2014: Group company SoftBank Mobile unveils Pepper.
• 2016: Acquires Arm.
• 2017: Launches SVF1.
• 2018: SoftBank lists on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
• February 2022: The sale of Arm to NVIDIA is terminated.
• 2023: Arm lists on Nasdaq.
• September 2024: First investment in OpenAI.
• January 2025: Stargate announced.
• February 2026: Decides on a further US$30 billion investment in OpenAI.

Key figures

Year ended March 2026 (April 2025 to March 2026, the company's fiscal 2025), IFRS, from the consolidated statement of profit or loss in Financial Report 2026.

• Net sales: ¥7,798.7 billion (prior year ¥7,243.8 billion)
• Total gain on investments: ¥7,286.5 billion (prior year ¥3,701.1 billion), of which ¥6,638.6 billion at the SoftBank Vision Funds and ¥218.1 billion in the Investment Business of Holding Companies
• Net income: ¥5,632.0 billion / attributable to owners of the parent: ¥5,002.3 billion (prior year ¥1,153.3 billion)
• According to the annual report, at 31 March 2026 the equity value of holdings was ¥48.3 trillion, net debt ¥8.2 trillion and NAV (net asset value) ¥40.1 trillion (company estimates, unaudited)

The segment information in the financial report shows that about 90% of net sales to customers (¥7,034.0 billion) comes from the "SoftBank" segment, built around the domestic telecommunications subsidiary SoftBank. Even so, it is the valuation of investments that decides net income. In the year to March 2026 net income attributable to owners was more than four times the prior year's, and most of it came from ¥6,638.6 billion of gains at the Vision Funds. The yardstick the company itself manages by is not sales or operating income but NAV, the equity value of holdings minus net debt. The company that began by distributing PC software has switched leaders era by era and is now an investment company measured by the value of its stakes.