SoftBank Gets Boost From Vision Fund to Forge Big Bets in AI

SoftBank Group Corp. swung to its biggest quarterly profit in two years, helped by a series of successful Indian listings that give founder Masayoshi Son more ammunition for his next bet.

The Tokyo-based company is stepping up investments in artificial intelligence, providing $500 million in OpenAI’s most recent fundraising round, which values the startup at a post-money valuation of $157 billion. SoftBank has the financial strength to make such bets in artificial intelligence, Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said on an earnings call.

“That value is not high at all for us,” Goto said. Whether in the arena of chips, ...