SoftBank Swings to Profit on Valuation Boost From OpenAI Bet

SoftBank Group Corp. sprang back to a quarterly profit after investment gains from OpenAI neared $20 billion, a promising start for one of Masayoshi Son’s signature gambles alongside ByteDance Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

The Tokyo-based company has invested about $34.6 billion in OpenAI, accumulating an 11% stake as of December, and has been in talks to invest as much as $30 billion more in a round that would value the startup at about $750 billion to $830 billion. As of December, SoftBank’s investment gain on OpenAI stood at $19.8 billion, the company said Thursday.