SoftBank swings to loss for first time in 2 years on US AI data center setbacks

SoftBank Group has swung to a loss for the first time in about two years, hit by losses from its US AI data center project and other businesses.

The Japanese conglomerate posted a net loss of 1.12 trillion yen ($7.06 billion) for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026 (July–September), the Nikkei said Tuesday, citing the company's earnings announcement.

It was the first quarterly loss for SoftBank Group since the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 (October–December), roughly two years ago.

For the first half of fiscal year 2026 (April–September), the company recorded a loss of 768 billion yen.

The swing to a loss was driven primarily by setbacks in SoftBank's US AI data center project. As the company reviews its plans to procure power generation equipment for the project, prepayments it had already made are now being recognized as losses.

Weak performance at subsidiaries also weighed on results. The AI computing business segment — covering three semiconductor subsidiaries including Arm — posted a loss of 322 billion yen in the first half of this year, a deterioration of 275 billion yen from the same period a year earlier.