TOKYO, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Japanese technology investor

SoftBank Group booked a surprising net loss of 369.2

billion yen ($2.4 billion) in the October-December quarter as

valuations at its Vision Fund investment arm fell.

In particular, SoftBank was hit by unrealised valuation

losses for South Korean e-commerce platform Coupang ( CPNG ),

Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Global and AutoStore Holdings

.

The result will further raise questions about how SoftBank

will fund one of its most ambitious undertakings - a hefty

investment in OpenAI.

Cash and cash equivalents dropped to 4.7 trillion yen

($30.6 billion) as of end-December from 6.2 trillion yen in

March which was the end of the previous financial year.

Sources said in January that SoftBank was in talks to invest

up to $25 billion in the ChatGPT creator. Recent media reports

have said that figure has grown to $40 billion though some of

that amount would later be syndicated out to other investors.

SoftBank has also committed to investing $15 billion in

Stargate - a venture with OpenAI and Oracle that will

build AI data centre capacity in the United States and which has

been backed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The announcements mark a return to the aggressive SoftBank

of old which rocked the technology investment world by taking

big bets on startups through its Vision Funds.

The third-quarter result compares to an LSEG consensus

estimate of a net profit of 234 billion yen drawn from four

analysts and a profit of 950 billion yen in the same period a

year earlier.

The Vision Fund unit posted an investment loss of 352.7

billion yen, breaking a run of two consecutive quarters in the

black.

Vision Fund 1 has had a gross gain of $21.6 billion since

its inception in 2017 while Vision Fund 2, which covers a broad

suite of earlier-stage startups, has logged a $22.2 billion loss

since 2019.

($1 = 153.6000 yen)