---
endpoint: analytics
pattern: Telecoms
status: done
latency_ms: 180009
conversation_id: f903441a-d382-4ffc-9180-ea9bcd8c47ac
citations: 0
created: 2026-05-31 18:09:17Z
---

# Who are the key customers and suppliers of Softbank Group?

## SoftBank Group (9984 JP) — Key "Customers" and "Suppliers"

**Important framing first.** SoftBank Group is an investment holding company, not an operating business in the traditional B2B sense — it does not have a customer/supplier value chain like an industrial or consumer-products name. CLSA frames the entire investment thesis as a Sum-of-the-Parts holding: "With the selldown in Alibaba, the valuation is now very focused on Softbank Vision Fund, ARM and Softbank Corp" [5]. So the meaningful translation of your question is: (i) **what generates value/income for SBG** (the analog of customers — its investee universe and operating subsidiaries) and (ii) **what supplies the inputs SBG depends on** (the analog of suppliers — capital providers and, indirectly, the supply chains of its operating subsidiaries).

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### 1. Where SBG's value comes from — Sum-of-the-Parts asset base

Per CLSA's 27 June 2025 SOTP (note dated post-AGM), the asset base is dominated by five blocks [1]:

| Asset / Stake | Description | CLSA Valuation (¥bn) | % of Gross NAV |
|---|---|---:|---:|
| **ARM Holdings** (89% owned) | Chip IP, valued at US$131bn enterprise value | 15,385 | ~49% |
| **Vision Fund (SVF1 / SVF2 / LATAM)** | SBG's equity portion, 20% haircut on private holdings | 7,572 | ~24% |
| **SoftBank Corp (9434 JP, 40% owned)** | Japan domestic mobile/telco | 3,797 | ~12% |
| **T-Mobile US (TMUS)** | 85.3mn shares (net of collar) | 3,019 | ~10% |
| **Deutsche Telekom (DT)** | 225mn shares (net of collar) | 400 | ~1% |
| **Alibaba (BABA)** | 355mn shares, fully neutralized by ~¥3.8tn collar contracts | 0 | 0% |
| **Other direct stakes** | Nvidia, Symbotic, Lemonade, others | 1,470 | ~5% |
| Gross Assets | | **31,643** | 100% |
| Parent debt (incl. Stargate-related) | | (6,660) | |
| **NAV (CLSA mark)** | | **24,983** | |

Source: CLSA SOTP table, 27 June 2025 [1].

---

### 2. The "Customer" analog — operating subsidiaries and portfolio companies

These are the entities that actually generate revenue, dividends, capital gains, or NAV appreciation for SBG:

**A. Operating subsidiaries (consolidated / strategic stakes)**
- **Arm Holdings** (~89% stake) — the single largest asset (~half of NAV). Arm's own customer base = global chip designers and hyperscalers (the "ASI platform" Son referenced at AGM 2025 — Arm, Graphcore and Ampere among SBG-owned chip assets) [6].
- **SoftBank Corp (9434 JP, 40%)** — Japan domestic telecom; its own customer base is Japanese mobile/broadband subscribers. Telecoms competition is flagged as a key risk for this asset [7].
- **T-Mobile US (TMUS)** and **Deutsche Telekom** — financial-only stakes held via collar structures.

**B. Vision Fund 1 / Vision Fund 2 / LATAM — largest investments by fair value** [2]

| Category | Top Holdings |
|---|---|
| **Largest private** | ByteDance, Fanatics, OYO, **OpenAI**, PayPay, Revolut, KAVAK, QuintoAndar, Wellhub |
| **Largest public** | Coupang, DiDi, Grab, AutoStore, OLA Electric, Swiggy, Inter, Nu, VTEX |
| **Fully exited** | Arm (IPO), Uber, DoorDash, Beike, IONQ, Vividion, Opismo, Xapo |

Cumulative since inception: **504 investments, US$156.6bn total fair value, US$71.5bn distributions** [4]. Headline milestone investments by year: ByteDance and NVIDIA (2017), Revolut/Flipkart/Nu (2019), and **OpenAI, Wiz, Databricks (2024)** [4].

**C. The "mega-AI" bets — the new top of the income tree**

CLSA's framing is that SBG's investment "customers" of capital are increasingly concentrated in AI. Son said at the 2025 AGM that "OpenAI could become the world's most valuable company" and laid out a vision for SBG to be the leading platform for Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) by 2030 [6]. SVF's AI strategy is anchored in four pillars: (a) **foundational infrastructure** — datacentres/compute (Stargate); (b) **cognitive models** — OpenAI, Perplexity; (c) **robotics & hardware** — OneX, Skilled AI; (d) **sector applications** — cybersecurity, data analytics, drug discovery. Notable "mega AI" plays driving portfolio value: ByteDance, OpenAI, Databricks [3].

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### 3. The "Supplier" analog — providers of capital and inputs

**A. Capital providers (the "suppliers of money" to SBG holdco)**
SBG's holdco model relies heavily on debt and structured financing. CLSA flags this explicitly: *"Softbank Group's high debt levels are easy to service at the present time given the very low interest rates in Japan, but this could be an issue if rates start to rise… Softbank Group may issue more debt to buy businesses that are unprofitable at the time of purchase"* [7]. Specific capital sources visible in the SOTP construction:
- **Japanese bond market / domestic banks** — primary parent debt funding (¥6.6tn adjusted parent net debt, assuming +¥1tn for Stargate and other initiatives) [1].
- **Margin loans against listed stakes** — secured against Arm, T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom shares (SOTP explicitly deducts "margin loan and payable considerations" from Arm value) [1].
- **Derivative/collar counterparties** — collar contracts on Alibaba (~¥3.8tn), T-Mobile, and DT, which effectively neutralize the Alibaba stake to zero in SOTP terms [1].
- **OpenAI bridge-loan and refinancing partners** — flagged in the FY2025 funding policy (refinancing + OpenAI bridge financing + possible asset monetisation).

**B. Operating-subsidiary supply chain (indirect)**
- **For Arm** — Arm itself does not manufacture; its IP is fabricated by its licensees at **TSMC, Samsung Foundry**, etc. Arm's own EDA tooling suppliers (Cadence, Synopsys) and the foundry layer are SBG's indirect upstream exposure.
- **For SoftBank Corp telco** — network equipment vendors (Nokia, Ericsson historically; NVIDIA flagged in SBG's broader AI/datacentre buildout, including Stargate) and tower/site infrastructure providers.
- **For Stargate / datacentre buildout** — Nvidia is named as a direct stake and as a key compute supplier for the Stargate AI infrastructure partnership [3].

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### 4. Key risks tied to this customer/supplier structure

CLSA flags four structural fragilities in this holdco model [7]:
1. **CEO concentration** — Masayoshi Son (29.1% holder) is the single point of failure for the investment vision; market would react sharply to any departure.
2. **Telecoms competition** — pressure on SoftBank Corp (9434) which is one of the four main asset blocks.
3. **Rate sensitivity** — high parent debt is cheap to service at current JGB rates; a sustained rate rise tightens the model.
4. **Private-portfolio opacity** — the OpenAI/ByteDance/Databricks/PayPay valuations are opaque, "and a large investment in OpenAI may be taken as negative by the market" [7].

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### Bottom line

SBG does not have "customers and suppliers" in the conventional sense — it has **(i) a concentrated asset base** (Arm ≈49% of NAV, Vision Fund ≈24%, SoftBank Corp ≈12%, T-Mobile + DT ≈11%, with Alibaba structurally hedged to zero) [1], **(ii) a portfolio of AI-themed private/public investee companies** led by OpenAI, ByteDance, and Databricks [2][3][4], and **(iii) a capital stack supplied by the Japanese bond market, margin-loan and collar counterparties, with ~¥6.6tn parent debt** [1]. Operationally, the closest thing to a traditional customer base sits one level below at Arm (global chip designers/hyperscalers) and SoftBank Corp (Japanese telecom subscribers).

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**Sources**
[1] Softbank Group – HC O-PF (A vision of ASI) — CLSA, 27 Jun 2025 — 607962937LinqAlpha.PDF (SOTP table, chunk 24)
[2] Softbank Group – HC O-PF (AI vision) — CLSA, 4 Jun 2025 — 607961216LinqAlpha.PDF (Largest investments by FV)
[3] Softbank Group – HC O-PF (AI vision) — CLSA, 4 Jun 2025 — 607961216LinqAlpha.PDF (AI investment strategy themes)
[4] Softbank Group – HC O-PF (AI vision) — CLSA, 4 Jun 2025 — 607961216LinqAlpha.PDF (Key milestones / portfolio highlights)
[5] Softbank Group – HC O-PF (A vision of ASI) — CLSA, 27 Jun 2025 — 607962937LinqAlpha.PDF (Investment thesis)
[6] Softbank Group – HC O-PF (A vision of ASI) — CLSA, 27 Jun 2025 — 607962937LinqAlpha.PDF (AGM ASI vision)
[7] Softbank Group – HC O-PF (AI push) — CLSA, 1 Jun 2025 — 607960933LinqAlpha.PDF (Investment risks)

*Note: All cited internal research is from CLSA (not CLST — SBG is a Japan-listed name covered by the CLSA parent). The latest internal note in scope is dated 27 June 2025; this analysis treats "latest" relative to that vintage. No public TFS filings/transcripts/news were retrieved in this turn — answer is grounded in CLSA's RMS coverage.*

