Japan's SoftBank returns to profit after gains at Vision Fund and other investments

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.

Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.

Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).

SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.

The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank's investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.

WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.

SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.

SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.

SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.

The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.

Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://x.com/yurikageyama

FILE - A woman walks in front of SoftBank store in Ginza shopping district in Tokyo, Jan. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

SAO PAULO (AP) — At least one explosion outside Brazil’s Supreme Court killed one person and forced the justices and staff to evacuate the building in the capital of Brasilia, police and firefighters said.

A police statement said an artifact exploded outside the court without providing more details. Local firefighters confirmed that one person died at the scene, but did not identify the person.

The court's justices safely left the building after the incident, which took place at about 7:30 p.m. local time, shortly after Wednesday's session finished. Jorge Macedo, a staffer at Brazil’s top court, confirmed the evacuation to The Associated Press.

Local media showed footage suggesting two blasts outside the court, with 20 seconds between the first and the second explosions.

José Chrispiniano, a spokesman for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said the 79-year-old leader was not in the neighboring presidential palace at the time of the blast.

Police blocked all access to the area where Brazil's Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace are located.

The presidential security bureau was conducting a sweep of the grounds around the presidential palace, local press reported.

Earlier, another explosion was heard outside Brazil's Congress, but it did not cause damages.

Police vehicles are parked outside the Supreme Court in Brasília, Brazil, following an explosion, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)