Main Q&A at Earnings Results Briefing
for Q2 FY2025

< Back

Date Wednesday, November 5, 2025
4:00 pm - 5:22 pm
Speakers SoftBank Corp.:
Junichi Miyakawa (President & CEO)
Kazuhiko Fujihara (Board Director, Executive Vice President & CFO)
  • Could you please discuss the specific functions of "Crystal intelligence" and when you expect to begin providing this service? Also, how do you anticipate its business model and contribution to financial results?

    We have started testing an alpha version (prototype) of the product that will serve as the foundation for "Crystal intelligence" within the Company. Although further tuning is needed, we expect it to have the potential to significantly transform how we work. In parallel with development and testing, we are also preparing internal systems and building the server connection environment.
    We will provide details on its specific functions when the time comes, but we envision capabilities such as automatic workflow generation. Once the product is ready, we plan to first test it internally at SoftBank Corp., followed by deployment to enterprise clients. Because deployment will require resources, we do not expect to support a large number of companies from the outset. We intend to proceed carefully, rolling it out on a company-by-company basis.
    Depending on business growth, we aim to establish a sales organization of around 1,000 people within the next year. As for the business model, we expect to generate revenue through deployment consulting and related services. The joint venture is projected to operate without recording a loss from its first fiscal year.

  • Are the payments from SoftBank Corp. to SoftBank Group Corp. still based on pay for use?

    There has been no change. We will not undertake initiatives that generate costs exceeding the benefits obtained, so we do not expect any negative impact on our consolidated financial results. Under the next Medium-term Management Plan, we aim to achieve contributions on top of existing businesses.

  • Please tell us about the status of the mobile business in Q2 FY2025. Could you also discuss how customers are responding to competitors' price increases and Y!mobile's price revisions, and your policy for customer acquisition going forward?

    Overall, performance has been steady. Mobile Number Portability (MNP) remained solid, but there were more short-term cancellations than we had expected, and we recognize the need to improve customer acquisition efficiency. We view competitors' early price increases as a step toward fostering a healthier industry environment, and we are considering similar measures from a medium- to long-term perspective. The price revision for Y!mobile has been well received by customers and is proceeding as planned. Going forward, our policy is to focus on acquiring users who will stay with the service over the longer term.

  • Rakuten Mobile, Inc. has pledged not to raise prices. How do you view this?

    For telecommunications carriers, network development in regional areas requires the greatest capital expenditure. Rakuten Mobile, Inc. has not made sufficient efforts to do so and is relying on KDDI Corporation's roaming network. From the standpoint of the principle that a telecommunications carrier that has been allocated spectrum should build its own network, we consider this unfair.

  • Could you please share your outlook for the enterprise business and changes in its earnings structure in the next Medium-term Management Plan?

    In the enterprise business, which includes the Enterprise segment and Distribution segment, we target revenue of approximately ¥3 trillion, which is comparable to the Consumer segment. The enterprise business can easily benefit from market changes, such as the deployment of AI, as tailwinds. Currently, the Distribution segment is not highly profitable. We aim to evolve the business toward supplying higher-margin solutions, and shift to a structure in which both revenue and profits grow steadily.

  • What is the status of PayPay Corporation's listing review? How do you view expectations for PayPay Corporation's future corporate value?

    It is true that the review process by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been temporarily suspended due to the partial U.S. government shutdown caused by the U.S. Congress' failure to approve a budget. We will refrain from commenting on the situation.
    We cannot provide a specific monetary amount for the corporate value of PayPay Corporation. If PayPay Corporation is listed, I personally expect it to be valued positively, considering its current growth rate, profitability, the potential of its banking business, and Japan's low country risk.

  • What do you think of the evaluation in Opensignal's Japan Mobile Network Experience Report?

    The results showed that we lagged slightly behind KDDI Corporation. However, we do not consider ourselves significantly behind in terms of actual customer experience. We are focusing on the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a fundamentally important customer satisfaction index, and will continue our efforts, with the aim of becoming No. 1.

  • What is the current status of AI computing infrastructure development and what is your future strategy? Media reports indicate that NVIDIA will supply a massive amount of GPUs to South Korea. What are your views on Japan's current situation?

    At present, SoftBank Corp. owns approximately 10,000 GPUs. These are clustered (a technology that connects multiple GPU servers to form a single high-performance system for accelerated computing), providing a certain level of computing capacity. However, the scale remains small compared with that of the U.S. To expand this infrastructure on a large scale, we are currently building AI data centers in Sakai and Tomakomai. Computing resources will constitute a core element of national strength in the next generation, and we view South Korea's move as a bold policy decision. In Japan as well, we believe that the government and private sector must work together to build internationally competitive, next-generation social infrastructure.

  • To win in the AI race going forward, I believe that a company must be a vertically integrated enterprise that handles everything from AI infrastructure to services. How do you view your business model for the future?

    We do not intend to focus solely on data centers. Our goal is to be an enterprise that provides end-to-end cloud services for the GPU era. We aim to generate revenue from our investments in GPUs and data centers in various ways. In collaboration with Oracle Corporation, we announced plans to offer sovereign cloud services with operational and data sovereignty. Looking ahead, we also aspire to secure technological sovereignty. We recognize that for Japan to sustain its position as a major economic power, it is essential to upgrade and expand its AI computing infrastructure. However, due in part to issues related to electric power, we see Japan's current AI computing infrastructure as being underdeveloped.

  • What is the level of demand for AI computing infrastructure in Japan?

    We recognize that there is extremely strong potential demand for AI utilization by companies and local governments. Considering the impact on our financial results and the situation regarding securing electric power, we intend to continue expanding our AI computing infrastructure. We will work with the goal of ensuring that AI computing infrastructure and AI data centers can start contributing to our financial results from next fiscal year onward.

  • What is the strategic positioning of "Sarashina mini," your homegrown large language model (LLM)?

    Our basic strategy with respect to competitors is to pursue a segmentation of domains. For advanced academic tasks that require academic-level intelligence, we will make use of general-purpose, high-performance models such as those offered by OpenAI. Meanwhile, for specific business tasks such as handling inquiries at call centers, that level of capability is not necessarily required, and we believe it is possible to use different models according to their intended application. Looking ahead, we also plan to enhance the capabilities of our own LLMs.

  • What is your current approach to shareholder returns?

    If our financial results exceed forecasts for FY2025, and we set out to enhance shareholder returns, share buybacks can be viewed as easier to implement than dividend increases. We consider the next Medium-term Management Plan to be extremely important, and if our business grows as planned, we intend to consider options including increasing dividends.

This document is intended to disclose the Company's financial results for H1 FY2025, and does not constitute a solicitation of an offer to sell or purchase any securities in Japan or any other jurisdiction. This presentation does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any offers, solicitations of offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended ("Securities Act"). The information on this presentation is being presented in accordance with Rule 135 under the Securities Act.