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Softbank's Vision Fund posts investment loss for fourth straight quarter

Vision Fund saw another disappointing quarter for its technology investments.

Donovan Erskine

February 7, 2023 11:15 AM

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Vision Fund, a venture capital fund owned by Softbank. It’s got sizable investments in several apps and tech start-ups, including Slack and Uber. While Softbank Vision Fund seemingly has its hands all over the tech world, its financial results have been disappointing for some time now, and that streak has continued as of the latest quarter. Softbank Vision Fund has officially posted a loss on its investments for four quarters straight.

We learned of Softbank Vision Fund’s investment news through a CNBC report. As of the latest financial quarter, which ended in December 2022, Vision Fund lost 660 billion yen ($5 billion USD). Factoring in taxes, this brings its loss total to 730.35 billion yen ($5.5 billion USD). Softbank blames the loss streak on an “overall decrease in the fair value of portfolio companies, mainly reflecting markdowns of weaker-performing companies and share price declines in market comparable companies.”

Softbank’s claim about the decrease in value of its portfolio companies is accurate, given the financial performance of some of its biggest investments over recent periods. This includes SenseTime, the Chinese AI company that’s valuation is down 57 percent over the past year. GoTo, an Indonesian tech company that Vision Fund is also heavily invested in, has seen the value of its shares drop by 65 percent.

The previous quarter was just the latest to include unfortunate news for Softbank Vision Fund. Back in the fall of last year, we reported on the news that Softbank had lost $9.8 billion on investments in Q2 2023. 2022 also saw the company dump its stock in Uber as an attempt to recuperate some massive losses. We’ll continue to monitor the performance of Softbank Vision Fund, so stick with Shacknews for any important updates.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_