SoftBank swings to a $7 billion loss, but Lenskart and Meesho add $394 million in gains as Ola Electric slips
SoftBank's first quarterly loss in about two years came from US data-centre costs, while two of its Indian bets kept climbing.
- Net loss: ~$7 billion
- Lenskart gain this quarter: $273 million
- Ola Electric valuation loss: $42 million
The big number
SoftBank Group posted a net loss of about 1.12 trillion yen (roughly $7 billion) for the July–September quarter, against a profit of 2.5 trillion yen a year earlier. A key reason was a loss of about $3.7 billion after it changed plans to buy power equipment for US AI data centres. Revenue still beat estimates, and its stake in OpenAI was valued at $99.6 billion.
India: winners and losers
Lenskart added $273 million in gains in the quarter, taking SoftBank's total gross gain on it to $1.3 billion on a $225 million investment. Meesho added $121 million, for total gains of $642 million. Ola Electric went the other way: a $42 million valuation loss left SoftBank's holding worth about 30% less than the $556 million it put in. Swiggy was roughly flat, while Delhivery and FirstCry also lost value.
SoftBank has also been cashing in: it sold a 1.56% stake in Lenskart for about ₹1,896 crore on 7 November, with Goldman Sachs the biggest buyer, cutting its holding to 5.71%.
Big picture
SoftBank has put nearly $16 billion into Indian startups and backed about a fifth of India's 100-plus unicorns. Its shares closed 13.9% higher on Tuesday as Asian tech stocks bounced.
