CEO New Year's Message

Happy New Year.

In 2024, a massive earthquake struck Japan's Noto Peninsula on New Year's Day, and in the summer, extremely heavy rains and other natural disasters impacted the entire country. I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences to all those who were affected. In 2024 we were once again made keenly aware of the responsibility we bear in ensuring the stable operation and maintenance of communication infrastructure. Furthermore, around the world, the development and provision of various AI services, including services based on generative AI, continued to appear in rapid succession, making 2024 a year where we could truly feel the arrival of an AI-driven society.

Looking back at our performance in 2024, in the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025 (FY2024), all segments saw increases in both revenue and profits, surpassing our initial forecasts. Consequently, we upwardly revised our full-year forecasts for FY2024. In the Consumer segment, not only did net additions of smartphone subscribers continue, we also saw progress in customers converting from our ‘Y!mobile’ brand to our ‘SoftBank’ brand, which typically sees higher customer revenues. For the first time since mobile service price reductions were implemented in the spring of 2021, in the first half of FY2024 there were positive conversions from the ‘Y!mobile’ brand to the ‘SoftBank’ brand. As a result, the expansion of our customer base continued, and an improvement in the average revenue per user in communication charges led to a continued revenue growth trend in mobile revenue. In the Enterprise segment, the growth rate of business solution sales remained in the double digit range, with sales in our cloud, IoT, and security businesses providing strong support.

As part of our initiatives to achieve future growth, in 2024 we made further progress toward realizing next-generation social infrastructure, a core component of our Long-term Vision. This progress includes the public release of our homegrown Japanese large language models (LLMs) with 460 billion parameters for research purposes, and announcing the development of our AI-RAN integrated solution, “AITRAS.” Among our corporate functions, various initiatives we undertook across the company to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were recognized, resulting in our winning of the “Nikkei SDGs Management Award Grand Prize” for the second consecutive year. Nikkei Inc. also recognized us as a “Prime Seat Company,” an accolade for companies that consistently receive high evaluations. For the second consecutive year, we also secured the top spot on Nikkei Inc.'s “Decarbonization Management Ranking GX (Green Transformation) 500” list.

Looking ahead, I anticipate that 2025 will be a year of unprecedented upheavals hinging on AI. Since ChatGPT was introduced in November 2022, in the space of less than two years it has evolved to the extent that it can generate text, images, videos, and even audio, possessing advanced PhD-level reasoning abilities. It is predicted that AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), which is said to have ten times the intellect of all humanity, will emerge, and AI will begin to function like personal assistants. As such advanced forms of AI are implemented and utilized across various industries and society, the value of the infrastructure supporting AI will increase, making the role that SoftBank plays increasingly important. SoftBank will further promote the construction of a foundation that supports this future AI society and the advancement of communication networks, pushing forward with the social implementation and utilization of AI, with the aim to become the company that is most needed by people and society.

In line with our corporate brand message, “Providing Answers to Social Issues,” we will continue to address social challenges and strive to contribute to people's happiness through technology.

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