In the fiscal year ended March 31, SoftBank cut its investments to about $3 billion, less than a 10th of its investments the previous fiscal year. It had said it was playing defense after many of its investments in startups went sour during the recent tech downturn. More recently, performance at SoftBank's technology-focused Vision Funds has brightened, said SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto on Thursday as the company released earnings. "Markets are calmer now and we saw signs of improvement in the last quarter," Mr. Goto said.