SoftBank Group Swings to a $7 Billion Loss on a Data Center Hit

SoftBank Group swung to a net loss of ¥1.12 trillion, about $7 billion, in the July-September quarter.

SoftBank Group Corp. released the results on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, in Tokyo. They cover the quarter ended September 30, 2026.

The company is a Japanese technology investment holding company listed in Tokyo as 9984.T. Its fiscal year ends March 31, 2027, making this its second quarter.

Sales rose as the bottom line swung to a loss

Net sales were ¥2.22 trillion in the quarter, up 15.6% from ¥1.92 trillion a year earlier, a TickerGrove calculation. Gross profit was ¥1.14 trillion.

The net loss attributable to owners of the parent was ¥1.12 trillion. A year earlier, the same measure was a profit of ¥2.50 trillion.

The total net loss was ¥1.06 trillion for the quarter. The basic loss was ¥196.54 a share, and the diluted loss was ¥196.77 a share.

Expectations were unusually wide before the release. Forecasts from three analysts polled by LSEG ranged from a profit of ¥233 billion to a loss of ¥113 billion, Reuters reported. The reported loss fell below even the lowest forecast in that range.

A ¥597.2 billion data center hit sits in the six-month figures

A subsidiary called SB7 books the power-equipment contracts behind the charge. It secures power-generation equipment for AI data center projects in the United States, including Pike County, Ohio.

In the six months ended September 30, SoftBank Group recognized a loss of ¥597.2 billion, or $3.73 billion. The loss came from revising those procurement plans, and it is not a standalone quarterly charge.

Of the loss, ¥457.0 billion came from non-refundable advance payments to secure manufacturing capacity and equipment. Another ¥140.2 billion came from contract modifications and settlements.

SB7's cumulative payments for the procurement reached ¥1.50 trillion, or $9.48 billion, by September 30. Rebates of up to $2.1 billion may follow on future purchases over the next 10 years, subject to conditions.

Reuters described the same item as a $3.7 billion loss tied to advance payments for power-generation equipment. That dollar figure and the ¥597.2 billion figure are one item, not two.

Financing costs more than doubled from a year earlier

Finance costs were ¥461.9 billion in the quarter, against ¥174.7 billion a year earlier. Finance cost is what the group pays to borrow, including interest on its bonds and loans.

The six-month finance cost was ¥790.7 billion, up from ¥340.0 billion a year earlier. The report ties the rise to borrowing that funded the OpenAI follow-on investment, plus higher bond balances and funding rates.

SoftBank repaid $25.9 billion of bridge loans early, on September 15, and closed the facility before its March 2027 maturity. The remaining unamortized bridge financing costs were then recognized in full in the second quarter.

During the quarter the group borrowed $11.87 billion through a term loan in September. It also raised $5.0 billion by increasing the margin loan backed by Arm shares.

Last year's OpenAI surge did not repeat

Total investment results swung to a loss of ¥133.6 billion in the quarter. A year earlier, total gain on investments was ¥3.44 trillion, when rising OpenAI value lifted results, Reuters reported.

The SoftBank Vision Funds segment lost ¥81.6 billion before tax in the quarter. A year earlier, the segment earned ¥2.38 trillion before tax.

One bright spot was ByteDance, the owner of TikTok. SoftBank recorded a ¥211.0 billion investment gain on ByteDance in the quarter, or $1.3 billion.

Share prices of public holdings including Coupang and Grab fell in the quarter, the report says. Those declines offset part of the private-company gains.

At September 30, SoftBank's cumulative investment in OpenAI was $54.6 billion. Its fair value was $99.6 billion, for a cumulative investment gain of $45.0 billion.

The OpenAI valuation was unchanged from the end of the previous fiscal year, the report says. A further $10.0 billion invested in October completed the $30.0 billion follow-on commitment.

That October step took total investment in OpenAI to $64.6 billion. The stake is about 13%, the company says.

The six-month figures carry a different scope

For the six months ended September 30, net sales were ¥4.24 trillion, up 13.3%. The six-month net loss attributable to owners was ¥768.0 billion, with a diluted loss of ¥136.83 a share.

Those are six-month figures, not quarterly results. The data center loss above is one item the report books on that six-month basis.

SoftBank also completed its $3.1 billion acquisition of DigitalBridge on September 30. DigitalBridge manages digital infrastructure such as data centers, cell towers and fiber networks.

What remains unknown

What remains unknown starts with the market verdict: the results landed as Tokyo's Tuesday session ended. No settled reaction exists yet, and the first settled verdict comes Wednesday.

SoftBank does not provide a forecast for the full fiscal year. The report says consolidated results are difficult to project because of numerous uncertainties.

How much of the $2.1 billion in possible rebates will actually be received is unstated. The company recognized no asset for the rebate rights at September 30.

Whether financing costs stay near this quarter's level is unstated in the report.

Wednesday brings the first settled verdict

What to watch: Wednesday's Tokyo session, the first settled trading after the results. It will show how investors weigh the data center charge against the OpenAI stake's value.

The third-quarter report is the next test of the cost line. It will show whether finance costs fall back after the bridge costs cleared.

DigitalBridge results enter the consolidated accounts from the third quarter. That will show what the acquired platform adds beside the group's own data center spending.