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SoftBank

Fading Vision? How coronavirus hit SoftBank's $100bn tech fund

Challenges pile up for some portfolio companies after a $16.7bn investment loss

SoftBank Group's Vision Fund, with its portfolio of tech names, is becoming an expensive challenge for CEO Masayoshi Son. (Photo by Ken Kobayshi)

TOKYO -- Investors have been given a glimpse of plunging valuations at some of the world's biggest startups after SoftBank Group admitted the Vision Fund -- its $100bn wrapper of tech investments -- had suffered a 1.8 trillion yen ($16.7 billion) investment loss in the year ended March.

SoftBank had reported a 798 billion yen loss for the fund in the nine months until December, indicating that it was hit by an additional 1 trillion yen loss in the January-March quarter as the new coronavirus outbreak wreaked havoc across financial markets.

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