SoftBank Corp Q2 2025 Earnings Investor Presentation Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Satoru Kikuchi - SMBC, Nikko Securities - Analyst : Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for your presentation. So you upwardly revised the forecast. So we also expected that to happen, and I also had expected that and how you're going to perform moving forward. And then you have incremental advanced investment, and how you're going to shift your direction? Junichi Miyakawa - SoftBank Corp - Executive President, Chief Executive Officer, President & CEO of Subsidiary, Representative Director So let me answer one-by-one. So as you mentioned, how we are going to control, we do not really control. We want to be as natural as possible as you as we go. And so, we believe that the result would come up as we continue to perform. So the next fiscal year JPY970 billion and that your target, you are getting closer to the target already set. And so, what is your expectation for the next fiscal year? So this fiscal year I don't think we will achieve JPY970 billion, but we would like to also invest on generative AI related things. So if we land at JPY970 billion, then we may lose, we may disappoint your expectations. So we would like to also exceed that next fiscal year.

Question: Satoru Kikuchi - SMBC, Nikko Securities - Analyst : Thank you for your explanation.

Question: Daisaku Masuno - Nomura Securities - Analyst : Two questions first about the consumer business to be honest competitive pricing plan against, I think is seems soft and Miyakawa-san it doesn't really care too much about net add is very -- it is some point, but again are you sending signal to the industry is that you should not be too competitive. I don't know my message is going to be erased, but I think if it's too competitive I think it would be a negative impact on the industry. Second, investment in a growing areas, I think I hope personally that better to build healthy negative results or LLM, I take a look at LLM and I think a 70 billion parameter expert model should be combined, or it's not commercial and Sakai data center is still behind the schedule although it's out of your control and the B200 is delayed in supply or delivery. So I think in general everything is slowing or you are left behind. So I think you better invest and even though you may suffer loss first, but then see the turnaround later would be better I think and I wonder if that will be possible in the next year? Thank you. Junichi Miyakawa - SoftBank Corp - Executive President, Chief Executive Officer, President & CEO of Subsidiary, Representative Director I think it's not easy to make that happen next year, because for example Sharp Sakai factory we hope that the factory will be up and running sometime next year, but it's highly likely one year late. And as far as NVIDIA's B200 I think it's only a few months delay, we should get our supply next year. So I think it's going well and NVIDIA promised that we would be the first one to receive B200 in the world. I hope that will be the case. About CapEx, you mentioned that investment in research and development seemed small this year, especially around AI. In fact we had some sandbags or buffers so I don't think that we are too left behind. Maybe Fujihara-san wants to say something.

Question: Daisaku Masuno - Nomura Securities - Analyst : Yes.

Question: Kazuki Tokunaga - Daiwa Securities - Analyst : I have two questions. One that you said that you are not chasing only net additions, but so you were going to shift it to another KPI, not just net additions. So which direction you are heading to as KPI. And so, it may be too early to ask you, but what is your direction heading to? Junichi Miyakawa - SoftBank Corp - Executive President, Chief Executive Officer, President & CEO of Subsidiary, Representative Director So even, it's not that we don't pursue net additions, but I mean that it's not the only thing that we pursue. So on the field it would exceed the initial KPI, and next fiscal year onwards of course we would target 1 million, but if the market is stagnant then we are not going to really open the new REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 08, 2024 / 9:00AM, 9434.T - Q2 2025 SoftBank Corp Earnings Investor Presentation door, but we would like to focus on ARPU improvement. So we don't want to spend excessive cost on customer acquisition, but we would like to spend on something different.

Question: Kazuki Tokunaga - Daiwa Securities - Analyst : Thank you. My last question. You are doing the AI servers externally, which is a great news. So what kind of demand do you have? Junichi Miyakawa - SoftBank Corp - Executive President, Chief Executive Officer, President & CEO of Subsidiary, Representative Director Yes, we have those who are sensitive to generative AI, and which the companies they are trying to use AI internally in-house. So as we listen to the requests from different companies, and once they have more understanding of gen AI, they would like to purchase more. So if we consider those as our pipelines, then there will be a big scale.