Earnings Call, Conference Presentation
2027年3月期 第1四半期 決算説明会 アーカイブ動画（2026年8月6日開催）ソフトバンクグループ株式会社
2027 Fiscal Year Q1 Earnings Overview & Strategic Updates
Financial Performance Highlights
- Net asset value (NAV) reached a record 72.3 trillion yen as of June 30, 2027, up significantly from 40 trillion yen three months prior.
- Adjusted self-evaluation of NAV stands at approximately 58.3 trillion yen following market adjustments.
- Investment income for the quarter was 1.86 trillion yen, an increase of roughly 1.4 trillion yen year-over-year.
- Net profit secured at 3.5 billion yen.
- Loan-to-value ratio maintained at a safe 13% as of June 30, well below the 25% financial policy target.
- Cash on hand (handover liquidity) decreased slightly to 2.3 trillion yen but remains sufficient to cover two years of operational needs, with 1.5 trillion yen in future funding receipts.
AI Infrastructure & Data Center Strategy
- France Project: Announced plans to build a 5GW AI data center; the first phase aims for 3.1GW by 2031 with a 45 billion euro budget in the northern region (Dunkerque, Poussin, Boissel).
- The Boskel site is certified by the French government as a strategic project, securing 1GW of power capacity.
- Partnership established with Schneider Electric to build a local power module supply chain.
- United States Projects:
- Portsmouth, Ohio: Developing a 10GW "Stargate" data center project targeting mid-2026 launch; currently in final negotiations for long-term lease contracts.
- Texas: Proceeding with an AI data center in the Miramu district under an existing long-term lease agreement with OpenAI.
- NEO Cloud Service: Joint venture between SoftBank Corp. and SB Investment to provide AI computing capabilities, leveraging SB Energy's power and data center assets.
- Strategic Rationale: SoftBank argues that massive AI infrastructure investment is critical to prevent the slowing of AI model evolution and accelerate the growth of ARM and OpenAI.
- France Project: Announced plans to build a 5GW AI data center; the first phase aims for 3.1GW by 2031 with a 45 billion euro budget in the northern region (Dunkerque, Poussin, Boissel).
Key Investment Portfolio Updates
- OpenAI: Committed to a total investment of $64.6 billion; $20 billion was executed in Q1 2027, with the remaining $10 billion scheduled for October.
- Product Roadmap: Highlighted GPT-5.6 as a "working AI" (Agent AI) capable of self-development and high-performance professional work, outperforming competitors like Anthropic and Google in benchmarks.
- Adoption: GitHub Copilot (Codex) user base grew 25x in 7 months, reaching 10 million active users by July.
- Future Plans: No immediate plans to announce an IPO for OpenAI; company views itself as a strategic shareholder enhancing mutual value.
- ARM Holdings:
- Financials: Revenue hit a record 1.3 billion yen (+22% YoY); EPS reached a record level (+29% YoY).
- Guidance: Sales guidance averaged 1.38 billion yen; EPS guidance set at 0.47 billion yen.
- ARM-AGI CPU: New chipline for AI agents expected to ship Q4 2027; currently facing supply chain constraints but demand exceeds initial $2 billion guidance.
- Market Share: 50% of hyperscaler CPUs are now ARM-based; new partners include Oracle and VMware.
- PC Sector: ARM-based CPUs with Agent AI features are being adopted in the PC market alongside cloud solutions.
- Vision Funds:
- Fund 1: Valued at 47.3 billion yen (up 1.6 billion yen).
- Exits: Sold approximately 1.5 billion yen in assets recently; active exits include Coupang, Robinhood, Full Truck Alliance, and DoorDash.
- Upcoming IPO: Prism (hospitality platform) has filed for IPO; operates a management platform for hotels in 35+ countries.
- M&A and Strategic Partnerships:
- ABB Robotics: Acquisition finalized with final payment expected within the fiscal year; expands SoftBank's physical AI robotics portfolio to 40 countries.
- PayPay & 7-Eleven: Formed a capital and business partnership with Seven-Eleven Holdings; aims to integrate PayPay (30M daily transactions) with 22,000 stores.
- T&D Financial: T&D Financial Seimei becomes a subsidiary of SoftBank.
- OpenAI: Committed to a total investment of $64.6 billion; $20 billion was executed in Q1 2027, with the remaining $10 billion scheduled for October.
Disaster Response & Corporate Governance
- Extended condolences and support for the Kumamoto earthquake victims, noting coordination with Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and acceptance of donations.
- Leadership Succession: CEO Masayoshi Son (85) remains in charge; management confirmed that Son will continue leading as long as he performs effectively, rejecting immediate succession rumors.
- Patent Strategy: SoftBank is leveraging AI to rapidly register patents (3,000+ in target markets) to build long-term infrastructure, despite high current costs.
Analyst Q&A Highlights
- AI Investment Bubble: Management dismissed concerns of an "overstatement" in US tech AI spending, citing a guaranteed supply shortage and the necessity of infrastructure to maintain AI growth speeds.
- OpenAI IPO Timeline: No specific date for OpenAI's IPO was provided; company states it is not pursuing an IPO in the near future.
- NEO Cloud & Data Center Scale: The 10GW NEO Cloud initiative relies on the Portsmouth and Texas projects but is not strictly limited to them; project finance will be non-recourse to SoftBank Group.
- Intel Performance: A sharp rise in Intel's share price (4-6 years high) contributed significantly to Q1 investment profits; future value growth in semiconductors remains a key expectation.
- Investment Strategy: No rigid annual budget for investment; funds are deployed opportunistically when high-quality targets arise, utilizing the company's strong balance sheet (60 trillion yen NAV) and syndicated financing.