Earnings call transcript: NTT’s Q2 2025 focus on AI and market challenges

NTT Group’s Q2 2025 earnings call highlighted the company’s strategic focus on growth investments and AI services amid tight cash flow due to recent acquisitions. The telecommunications giant is navigating a competitive mobile market and aims to expand its enterprise business significantly. Despite challenges, NTT’s stock surged, indicating positive investor sentiment about its future prospects.

Key Takeaways

• NTT’s cash flow remains tight due to acquisitions, but growth investments continue.
• The company is targeting 3 million subscribers for its new Docomo Max plan.
• NTT Data is focusing on AI infrastructure and services, despite some unprofitable projects.
• The mobile market is highly competitive, affecting Docomo’s market share.
• NTT plans to generate JPY 300 billion from AI agent services by 2027.

Company Performance

NTT Group is focusing on maintaining its competitive edge in a challenging telecommunications market. The company is investing in network infrastructure and exploring AI services to enhance its product offerings. Despite facing intense competition in the mobile sector, NTT is implementing strategies to improve customer retention and expand in North America. The company is also leveraging partnerships in sports and music to boost its customer base.

Financial Highlights

• EBITDA target: JPY 4 trillion
• Docomo Max plan subscribers: 1.5 million (targeting 3 million)
• Unprofitable projects at NTT Data: JPY 3 billion in Q2
• Enterprise business growth target: JPY 20-30 billion annually

Market Reaction

NTT’s stock price experienced a significant increase, rising by 27.57% to reach a last close value of JPY 2,451.6. This surge reflects investor optimism about the company’s strategic initiatives and growth potential in AI and enterprise services. The stock’s performance contrasts with its 52-week range, indicating a strong market response to the earnings call.

Outlook & Guidance

NTT is projecting significant enterprise business growth and aims to achieve JPY 300 billion in revenue from AI agent services by 2027. The company continues to invest in network infrastructure and is considering asset sales to fund competitive initiatives. These strategic moves are expected to bolster NTT’s position in the global market.

Executive Commentary

• "We need to solidly and surely protect our customer base." - Shimada, NTT Holdings
• "The competitive landscape in the age of AI will start to emerge." - Sasaki, NTT Data
• "We are not trying to develop a huge AI, but meeting customer demands." - NTT Data Executive

Risks and Challenges

• Intense competition in the mobile market, affecting market share.
• Tight cash flow due to recent acquisitions, impacting financial flexibility.
• Unprofitable projects at NTT Data, posing challenges to profitability.
• High sales promotion expenses across the telecommunications sector.
• Need for continuous investment in network infrastructure to remain competitive.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts focused on the competitive pressures in the mobile market and the company’s strategies to manage sales promotion expenses. There was also significant interest in NTT’s investment strategies in data centers and AI services, highlighting the market’s keen interest in these growth areas.

Full transcript - NTT Inc (9432) Q2 2026:

Facilitator/Moderator: Today, we will skip the earnings presentation and start with the Q&A session. Please refer to our IER website, presentation materials, for the documents regarding this presentation.

会場でご参加いただいている皆様、並びに事前にご登録。

We will take questions from those who are attending in person, and then those who are pre-registered attending via the web conference system.

はい、お願いします。

Those of you here at the venue, please raise your hand and wait for the microphone. Those of you participating remotely, please press the raise hand button on the web conference system. If you’d like to cancel your question, please click on the same button again. Please first state your media name and your name when you are designated, and please unmute when asked. Please remain unmuted until our response has ended. Now we will start the Q&A session. First, we will take questions from the floor.

どうぞ。

For those of you who have questions, please raise your hand. The front row on the right-hand side from my side, please go ahead. My name is Kikuchi from SMBC Nikko Securities. Thank you very much. Your company plan, you have not revised the plans, but looking at the contents of it or the breakdown of it, there are quite a bit of a change. The data center transfer gain is about JPY 20 billion less than the fiscal year start plan. And SBI submissions, due to the TOB of that, there’s an overlap there too. And NTT DATA TOB has been completed, and non-controlled interest is going down, so the profit is going to be boosted upwards. Also at the press conference, Mr. Shimada, you were saying that Docomo in the second half is going to accelerate its reinforcement of the customer base.

At the start of the fiscal year, you were saying that the second half, the expenses will be controlled a bit more. It was the explanation. I feel that there’s a difference from there. Even though Docomo underperforms, the other areas, there’s a buffer about around several 10 billion. I believe in the first half, there wasn’t much that was used over there. There are various changing factors that have occurred, but the content of the plan has not been revised at this point. You’re saying it’s okay, we’re going to completely achieve it, don’t be worried about it. If that is the case, that’s fine. It seems that that is actually not the case. Can you explain thoroughly, one by one? That would be greatly appreciated. That’s my first question. Kikuchi-san, thank you very much for your question.

First of all, what we don’t have a clear visibility yet is Docomo’s competitive environment. From the second half of last year, in practice, the MNP, as well as the quality issues, were the focus point of Mr. Maeda and has been implementing initiatives to respond to that. No more thinking. You’ll think that last year in the second half, a lot of money has already been injected. Therefore, compared to the first half of this fiscal year, you may think that the second half will not have an increase in cost, especially on a year-on-year basis. Normally, that would be the situation. However, if you look at their current most recent competitive arena, the competitors are seriously responding to the competition. Also for us, this fiscal year, we have in mind that we cannot lose this race.

Therefore, if they’re going to further strengthen their competitive competition measures, then we have to respond to that. This is the area that we don’t have a complete visibility. On the other hand, how are we going to absorb that cost? This as well. Just simply revising the forecast and allocate expenses to this, that’s not the case, but utilizing the. Unutilized assets or reduce the cost where competition is not the issue. We need to look at the situation in a comprehensive manner. Having said that, on the other hand, selling assets, that is going to require a certain amount of time. Therefore, suddenly, if we try to do it in the fourth quarter, that will be difficult to do. Therefore, in this third quarter period, what kind of competitive environment is going to face us is what we need to see. Depending on that, things will be changing.

For now, we are responding to various things and would like to achieve the targets. Depending on the environment, we do not know what the environment of the competition is going to become. We do not know various things. We would like to keep a very close eye on the third quarter competitive arena and respond to that. For the data center, you said one by one. Regarding the data center, it is JPY 26 billion less than what we have originally assumed. However, as Sasaki-san from NTT Data was explaining, actually, the order situation is quite strong. Net sales for the second quarter, the domestic unprofitable projects came about, and there were negative factors both domestically and internationally. However, for domestic and overseas, the order situation is strong.

Whether all that is going to cover this negativity, we do not have a clear picture, but they are also reinforcing the sales activities as well. I am hoping that they will be able to absorb this. Also, wholly owning NTT Data, whether that will regarding boosting the bottom line because of that. Currently, the financial expenses are slightly increasing. Of course, this is one factor. However, we have not revised it because of this. Regarding the submission, SBI or SBI submission. Moving forward, how much of the services can be brought about that will bring synergy to us is the key. Within Docomo, it is thoroughly being reviewed. Not just Docomo, but SBI submission and NetBank as well. They want to grow. Together with them, this part is being considered and reviewed. Of course, I would like them to come out with a certain outcome.

The key is the mobile businesses, the consumer-side competitive environment. That is going to be the key. Thank you very much. That means that looking at various situations, you will consider selling assets. You have done quite a bit of that two years ago. There are assets that will generate profit. Are there any left because you have done it two years ago? What we did two years ago is the asset of NTT East and NTT West. For Docomo business, it also has various assets on hand. Within Docomo Group, I want them to think of what can be done. Thank you very much. My second question is about the finance part. Regarding the business. I want to. Take a deep dive later for each company. The finance part. You have issued foreign bonds the other day.

I thought that you would provide us with explanation after everything is done, like the NTT Data TOB expenses, and SBI Sumishin NetBank’s TOB. That will be covered with Docomo’s asset sales and data center investment. From next fiscal year onwards, the necessary capital. What we are concerned about is the shareholders’ return, which is a dividend and share buybacks. Six months ago, you were saying that the direction and policy is not going to change and will be continued. Is that really possible? Also, when you wholly owned Docomo through TOB, the cash flow at the holdings company, you had about JPY 900 billion, and you were going to pay back your debt and shareholders’ return investment. With that amount, you were able to make it through somehow. Currently, with NTT non-consolidated, how much of cash flow are you expecting?

That cash flow, do you have to repay your debt? I think that is a discussion point. I think you do not have to repay and lower the leverage. What kind of allocation of cash are you thinking of to maintain shareholder returns or maintain investment? I would like you to share your views. Hiroi is speaking. I would like to answer your question. This fiscal year, NTT Data has been wholly owned, and SBI Sumishin NetBank, we have acquired them. Cash wise, it is quite tight. Also, looking at NTT Docomo’s performance with the cash flow that is recorded, they are using the surplus of the cash flow for responding to the competition. I think we will be at the bottom and a tight situation in terms of cash flow this fiscal year. Making investments for growth and increasing cash is what we are aiming for.

EBITDA is JPY 4 trillion is the target we have, and we are progressing towards that. Once we see the effect of the investment in the medium term, this gap is going to be fulfilled, and the financial position is going to improve. In terms of the soundness of the financial situation and balancing that with the shareholder return, basically what we are doing right now is the share buyback and the dividend level. Basically, we are continuing to increase the dividend. We believe we will be able to solidly maintain that. This fiscal year and next fiscal year, for a little bit, they will have a tight cash flow situation. Of course, we can think of utilizing debt.

Basically, the current credit rating of a single A minus, we would like to maintain that rating and to do things so that we do not cause trouble for the bondholders or bond investors as well. That is how we would like to manage the financial position. That is all. Thank you. Thank you very much. よろしいでしょうか。ありがとうございます。 Thank you. We will take the next question in the front row, left-hand side, please. I must know from Nomura. I have a question for each segment. Starting with the Global Solutions Overseas Data Center. Earlier, NTT Data President made a press announcement. I believe that we can accelerate investment. I believe that more risk should be taken to accelerate investment. I felt that the president was a bit cautious. Do you have any thoughts about accelerating investment for data? We want to accelerate.

To be honest, we do want to accelerate our investment. There is the construction capacity that needs to be factored in. Construction speed and also, are we going to do this with our own equity? That is another question. If we are going to tap into the funds from third party, then that will give us more power. That is something that we are studying. We studied that possibility earlier, but the environment did not work out. Now the current environment is more favorable to involving third-party investment. We will consider that in more earnest. In terms of the construction speed, it does depend on the location. We would like to accelerate investment globally in a way that is well-balanced. Of course, we have to enhance projects with higher profit. For example, in India, the return is quite high.

We would like to focus in areas where the return is higher. In terms of the construction capacity, that is a physical impediment. In terms of funding from equity investors, lowering the equity ratio or involving third party is not that favorable. Rather, increasing debt through project finance rather than lowering the equity ratio, that would be our hope. We have no idea about, we do not think about increasing equity or decreasing the equity ratio. We are just talking about using third-party funds for investment. It is not like a third-party joint venture. No, that is not the case. Thank you. My second question is regarding Docomo. One year ago, at the IRJ, when the medium-term plan was presented, Docomo’s consumer business operating profit was to rise. The premises for that was that the sales promotion will be made more efficient for the year ended March 27.

Looking at the current situation, the promotion efficiency is actually declining. If the competitive landscape does not change, I believe that the current sales promotion efficiency will continue into the next fiscal year. If your competitors do not reduce the sales promotion, what is going to happen in the next fiscal year? The final year of the medium-term plan. This may be similar to my answer to Kikuji-san earlier. You are right that the scenario has changed somewhat from what we had imagined it to be one year ago. Our sales promotion cost is about the same as our competitors. In the past, Docomo was able to keep the sales promotion cost lower than our competitors. What happened as a result of that was that our market share was going down. We are expanding about the same level of marketing cost as our peers. Will the current stage just continue?

If that is the case, then of course, we will need to revisit the scenario. Reducing the marketing cost just by ourselves would mean that we reduce market share, the customer base itself. We need to think about the balance. The overall market is also seeing a cost increase across different items. How we absorb that cost increase is a struggle for not just us, but for all our competitors. What kind of the competitive landscape we will see going forward needs to be watched. By closely observing that, I’m sure that I’ll be able to better answer your question. Accounting-wise, even if Docomo sells some of its assets, for example, we exclude that. The data center sales, that is also excluded as well. Going up or down, that will not have a bearing on how it is valued.

I think we need to show that Docomo recovers on its normalized basis. Lastly, for the regional communication business, can we say that the recovery is on track? I’m sure that the quarterly result is not sufficient, but the second quarter results didn’t seem that satisfactory. Do you think that the structural reform is on track? In terms of NTT East and West, basically, the situation is on track. NTT West had some profit decline factors, which we had communicated to you before. There are assets that needed to be reduced from the books, which have become unnecessary, and these were already in the plan. For making efficiency, introduction of AI at the call centers, and using more AI in the support teams, all of that is on track. For the NTT East and West, I’m not worried about the projections. Thank you very much. That is it for me.

Thank you very much. For those of you who have questions, please raise your hand. The person in the second row, please. Tokunaga from Daiwa Securities, I have two questions. The first is regarding the new Taka Ichi administration. Looking at the media report and looking at the minister of MIC’s press conference, they are going to work on the amendment of NTT law. However, having said that, up to now, quite a bit has been considered, and it seems that it has settled down once. Moving forward, what else can be considered is something that I cannot imagine. Therefore, at this point, for your company regarding NTT law, what you are seeking for, or do you have any expectations for the new government, is my first question.

How the NTT law should be, as you have mentioned, Tokunaga-san, with the amendment that was done in the last two years, we believe that it has been moved forward quite a bit, is how we look at it. The major issue that remains, if I may say, is the total volume regulation, meaning that only have that imposed on NTT, and is NTT the only one that should abide that due to security’s reasons. As Masuno-san mentioned, to improve the efficiency of NTT East and NTT West, how they should do their work, or how the organization should be, how they should conduct their work. This time, there was quite a deregulation done. Regarding the organization, changes are still remaining for improving efficiency. Within the law, it is stipulated that the discussions will resume three years from now.

There is no necessity at this point to rush on things at this point. However, at this point, what we would like the government to consider is regarding universal service provision. The rule itself has been amended, but regarding the detailed how the system should be designed is not completed. More than the amendment of the NTT law itself, but what has been amended this year, up to this year, the content of that, we need to accelerate working on the details of that. Thank you very much. The second question is kind of a follow-up question to Masuno-san. There is in two parts. Regarding NTT Docomo, there may be a possibility of a scenario change, and NTT East and NTT West are in line as a plan. I am actually looking at a different direction.

NTT Docomo, maybe July and September was tough, but in October, the MNP is turning positive. In terms of the customer acquisitions, I believe that for the mobile communications, it is going to come back. Compared to the IR day that was done, IR day, maybe the profit recovery level is quicker than that. The first point is that the changes of a scenario for Docomo, which KPIs is it? The revenues, the profit. The second question is including the rate change of NTT East and NTT West. Maybe we should not expect a large increase in profitability. First of all, regarding NTT Docomo and NTT East and NTT West, Tokunaga-san, regarding Docomo, you are a bit optimistic. As Shimada mentioned before, that is different from how we look at it because the market competitive environment is quite intense. In October, the MNP has recovered, as you have mentioned.

At Docomo’s side, the marketing activities have been reinforced, and that has been increasing. As a result of that, they are gaining the numbers, and we believe that this situation is going to continue, or we have to look at it that this is going to continue. Regarding NTT Docomo, in terms of the revenue and profit, we cannot be optimistic about it. Regarding NTT East and NTT West. It is true that regarding the rate increase, we are implementing initiatives so that we’ll be able to do so. As we have assumed at the beginning of the fiscal year, the revenue and also the cost efficiency initiatives are progressing as planned. I do not think there is a major change in this fiscal year. Giga School. As we see in Giga School and others, there is a large-scale investment.

That is done by the regional areas sales rep for NTT East and NTT West. Actually, that is bearing fruits, and that is contributing to the operating profit. That is the current situation. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We will now ask the online members if you have any questions. If you have a question, please use the raise hand button for the online participants. Okumura-san from Okasan Securities, please unmute yourself. Thank you. I’m Okumura from Okasan. Can you hear me? Yes. I have two questions. First, regarding the data center business. This may be a question that I should pose to NTT Data, but about JPY 90 billion book value asset was sold at about two times the price. The total IRR of these assets, what was the total IRR? Also, the data center book value is around JPY 2 trillion now.

What is the unrealized value, unrealized profit from this? Should we assume that it is about JPY 1 trillion? Also, regarding the data center portfolio, what is the utilization rate, or what is the contract period? Can you provide some KPIs for investors? This is Hirono speaking. In terms of the data center REIT IRR, we are not able to provide concrete numbers. We are aiming for pricing that is aligned to the investor’s perspective. We believe that a fair valuation is being realized. In terms of the entire data center business, what is the total value? What is something that we can provide better color on? We are promoting more disclosure on the data center business. Data center valuation, there is a market for that. EBITDA and profit-based multiple. Some kind of a total value can be assumed for our assets.

Perhaps you can reference that in order to value the data center business as a whole. Thank you. Now, in terms of my second question. In terms of the creation of synergy with NTT Data, I’d like to ask about the revisions to your medium-term plan. What kind of discussions are ongoing? The synergy of having NTT Data as a 100% subsidiary, will you just be updating EBITDA or the leverage ratio, or will you be introducing new KPIs like EPS? Or will you be considering balance sheet restructuring or changing the medium-term targets? Are you having those wide-ranging discussions? Can you share with us what is being discussed? This is Shimada. We are still in the process of discussing the synergy. I actually mentioned this in the press conference. We need to first review NTT Data’s medium-term plan.

President Sasaki of NTT Data also mentioned, in terms of the global synergy that can be harnessed as a group, that is one very important factor. NTT Data’s medium-term plan will be announced in spring next year, and the consolidated business plan will also be revisited at that time. At this time, numerical targets or contents, how much we will review the medium-term plan, it is too premature to say, because we need to have more concrete items to be able to provide more color on this. Thank you. I apologize for asking a premature question. Thank you. それ。 I would like to take a question from Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities. Mr. Tsukasa, thank you. This is Tsukasa from Morgan Stanley. Can you hear my voice? Yes. Thank you very much. I have one question regarding the mobile business and also the question related to NTT Data.

Regarding the mobile business, before, you were not spending money than your competitors, but you are spending now at the same level as the competitors, and you’re still losing. I think this is quite a serious situation. The other point is listening to Mr. Maeda’s presentation for NTT Docomo, it seems that various things are being in place or prepared. However, did not feel something that will stand out as becoming the core for them. As a holding company, the strategy of NTT Docomo, are you making a decision that is really going well? Or if there’s a question, you feel a question towards NTT Docomo’s strategies, towards NTT Docomo directly, are you in a position that you can instruct them directly as a holding company, or are you taking such an action to them? Is what I’d like to know. The second question is related to NTT Data.

The president of NTT Data, Sasaki-san, was saying that it’s global. Shimada-san, you mentioned that it’s global as well. For a global center business, you hold the number three position globally, so you have quite a solid presence there. For the other businesses, I do not think you can say that they have succeeded overseas, well, numerically, from the number perspective. The reason why you are focusing on global, the data center being a global business is fine. I understand that very well. For the other businesses, that being global, I feel that there’s no track record that has been achieved is how we can see it. How should we think about that? First of all, Mr. Tsukasa, thank you very much. Regarding the mobile business, whether a discussion is done or not, we are having a discussion with them.

Because we are having the discussion, that is why the direction has been changed since last fiscal year. Basically, they need to solidly and surely protect their customer base. As I mentioned before, without spending cost or money and just damage their existing customer base, there’s no future for the business. Therefore, we wanted them to thoroughly respond to this situation. For the second quarter, actually, the Ilmo’s 0.5 giga was stopped as a plan, and there’s an impact of that. In fact, we slightly lost against the competitors. As of October, MNP is net positive now. The second quarter situation, I think, is a temporary situation, is how I look at it. What’s more important than that is regarding quality. We need to improve the quality, especially because everybody now is watching a lot of video. The challenge is in the metropolitan areas around the railroad routes.

We need to work on that, and we need to increase the number of base stations. However, today, it was said that in the second half, they’re going to increase the construction process by threefold, but that needs to continue into next fiscal year. Also, the 5G base station that has become old needs to be new, and we are replacing that to a new one. That needs to be completed through this fiscal year and next fiscal year. Those are the two key points. We are aligned with Docomo on this, and they are thinking of various cost reductions, but these are the necessary costs that need to be spent. For this year and next fiscal year as well, in terms of implementing new equipment and the facilities, it is something that is necessary.

Therefore, how are we going to overcome this situation and have a bright prospect for FY2027? Of course, I don’t know the numbers for FY2027 yet. However, these types of factors will come about, and we are aware of that, and we are continuing our discussions on it. Regarding NTT Data, at the global discussion, recently, the demand for AI is coming about quite strongly. The tech services customers, conventional tech service customers, is where the AI demand is coming from. Especially South Europe, like Spain, Italy, in that region, the needs are heightening. In Germany, unfortunately, the automobile industry is not doing well, so there’s an impact from that. The U.K. performance is coming back slightly. In the United States, the U.S. is about the same situation like Southern Europe. We do have expectations to a certain extent in those regions.

The product itself is transforming, and having the customer base is quite valuable. In the areas other than a data center business, to turn it around into a positive business, I want the business to be managed in that way. Thank you very much. ありがとうございました。が予定時刻。 Thank you very much. We have exceeded the allocated time. We would like to take one more question, either from the floor or remotely. Since there seems to be no further questions, we would like to conclude NTT Holdings’ presentation. Next will be from NTT Docomo, so please stay in your seats. Thank you. それでは。 We will now begin NTT Data’s briefing session for the six months ended September 30, 2025. I am Makuhi of IR Office. I’ll be serving as your facilitator. Please refer to our IR website presentation materials for today’s documents. First, let me introduce these speakers: NTT Docomo.

President and CEO, Mr. Maeda. NTT Docomo Business. President, CEO, representative member of the board, Mr. Kojima. NTT Docomo Senior Executive Vice President, representative member of the board, Mr. Kobayashi. まず、President Maeda will give a brief explanation from the presentation material on the key highlights. Then we’ll move on to the Q&A session. Hello everyone, I am Maeda from NTT Docomo. Since today, the time is limited, I would like to highlight some key points and give you the explanation. Please look to page 2 at the right bottom of the slide. Regarding the results overview, the trend has not changed from the first quarter, increasing operating revenue and profit. Increase year on year. The decline in the profit for the second quarter accumulated JPY 80 billion.

It seems large, but there are many other factors that are already included in the plan, and the intensifying competition is raising the sales and promotion. We are going to take the subpriority on re-enhancing the customer base and making the MNP plus. As for the sales promotion costs, we’re going to raise the necessary funds in order to compete with the carriers. The details will be explained later. Please look at page 6. As for operating profit changes, I will explain by segment briefly. First of all, regarding the Smart Life business, the profit seems a bit weak. However, it is steadily growing organically, and revenue and profit both are performing strong. It is in line with the plan, and the annual plan is going to—we are looking at the annual plan to be achieved. Enterprise too, continuing from the first quarter, is performing well.

The large enterprise and mid-tier and SME are growing, focused on solution and progressing as planned. As for the decline in the mobile communication service revenue and network reinforcements, expenses increase that are factors for profit decline and consumer communications explained and reflected in the plan. Sales promotion expenses at the start of the fiscal year, we set to aim for further improvement and efficiency through marketing strategy transformation. However, in order to respond to the intensified competition, exceeding more over the assumption, we have changed the direction to spend necessary costs, placing reinforcements and customer base as our utmost priority and injected more sales promotion funds. Please look at page 9. This, I would like to add about the consumer communications business that is our issue. Net additions to trends and finally prolonged competition since spring sales and season. Net additions to individual hands were shown here.

MNP was also negative for the second quarter. Our recent strength and sales promotion efforts have begun to pay off, and MNP was positive in October. Churn rate continues to remain significantly lower than our carriers. As mentioned at the start, the necessary funds to reinforce customer base will be raised through cost reduction and others, and we’ll take on the challenges to turn the annual MNP to a positive one. Page 10. Docomo Max was initially slightly behind the plan, but by making improvements in the sales method and promotion, the migration rate is now around 60%, roughly in line with the plan. Most recently, we have surpassed 1.5 million subscribers on track to achieve the 3 million annual target. We will be adding new value to make the Docomo Max even more appealing. In terms of the new subscribers, there is further potential for growth.

We approach younger customers with U22 discounts as a hook and collaborate with partners for new sales channels and expanding customer touchpoints, enforcing the customer base through Docomo Max. Page 12, please. ARPU has increased to JPY 390,060, a 30% year-on-year increase by the introduction of new plans such as Docomo Max. We have maintained ARPU Plus since the fourth quarter of 2024, JPY 40 plus against the first quarter, and the momentum is strong. Docomo Max is a plan that increases ARPU regardless of which plan the customer is on. The ARPU gap before and after migration is on the rise. Actual ARPU, excluding ARPU cut, is steadily increasing. Actually, in some of the one-off factors such as seasonality, we expect full ARPU to be positive. Thank you very much. We will continue to enhance the customer base as our first priority.

それでは。 And now we’d like to take questions. For those of you who have a question in this venue, the staff member will bring you a microphone, so please ask your questions there. 会議システムの挙手ボタンを。 For those of you participating online, please press the raise your hand button when you would like to ask a question. We’d like to take the questions from the floor first. The person on the right-hand side in the very front row, please go ahead. SMBC Nikko Securities, my name is Kikuchi. Thank you very much for today. I have two questions. The first is regarding page 6 of your slide, consumer communications business breakdown of the changes of the operating profit. Is that okay? Not this one. No, this one. The first quarter, the sales promotion reinforce and network reinforcement was together.

The content was difficult to see, but this time it’s broken out, so it’s easier to understand. Thank you very much. This outlook for the second half from last year’s third quarter. There’s sales promotion expenses. Last year there was no breakdown like this, but it was around several 10 billion for the third quarter and fourth quarter that increased. This first quarter and second quarter is the early several 10 billions, about JPY 30 billion. For us, once it becomes a third quarter, last year there was a large increase. It will be the same level at the first quarter, second quarter, and the third quarter. It will do its rounds once. We thought that it’s not going to increase that much.

For your company, at the beginning of the fiscal year, you said that you will be spending this expense in the first half, but the second half, this expense will go down. In the consolidated explanation, what Shimada-san said, and as you were saying, Maeda-san, in the second quarter, you will be spending sales promotion expenses. At that time, with Max effect, the competitiveness increases. The efficiency will improve, and that will lower the sales promotion expenses. That’s what you were saying at the first half. With that, you’re going to increase it, or are you going to increase it more than last fiscal year? If that is so, that means that you’ll be using more than the first half because level-wise, you have come to the second quarter with no changes from last year’s third quarter. Are you going to use more than this?

October you’re saying that there’s an improvement in MNP, and it seems that it doesn’t actually match up with what you’re saying regarding MNP. The expenses that you’ll be using that you’re saying, is that against what you planned at the beginning of fiscal year, or is it more than last fiscal year? Can you actually explain this situation? I will explain. First of all, it will be the explanation regarding the current situation is what I have given you. As you have pointed out, regarding the competitive environment for the first half, we have not used that much. We were going to use at the same level as our competitors spending last year. We believe that the Max effect will actually bring positive factors to us. The situation is different than what we have originally thought of.

The first point of this is that our competitors’ response to the competition has become stronger. Based on our analysis, last fiscal year’s port-out trend, against that trend, the port-out trend once we entered this fiscal year is more than 1.2 times. Of course, there are various factors behind this is what I think, but the major one is that the competitors’ competition efforts are becoming stronger, including their sales promotion, meaning that more than last fiscal year, they are spending more of sales promotion expenses. This first half, we have increased the spending, but the competitors are using more than the amount that we have increased. As Shimada explained before, we have been using the same amount as our competitive carriers, but we are using at the same level as last year’s first half of competitors’ spending.

This fiscal year, the competitors are spending more than us is how we look at it. Towards this situation, we have increased the spending, but that was not enough. That is why we have a negative MNP. The effect of Docomo Max was not that going to be more effective is your question, but yes, of course, we thought that. Regarding this point, I think what we have expected was a bit loose, meaning that from fandom, meaning that from the other carriers, we were expecting that there were more users that will come to us. We currently now are looking that it is going to take more time. It is how much we can broaden the recognition of this. With us, we are strengthening the relationship with the J League as well.

Because of that, we are seeing more port in, but where we will see much more movement will be a little bit down the road. The sales promotion, we need to strengthen it more. In order to do that, we need to have more content and reinforce the contents. The port in effect of Docomo Max is not being realized than what we have expected. For the discount, we still need measures to compete with our competitors. What is going to happen in the second half is your question. If I might touch upon it, more than what we expected originally, we need to spend more. If we want to take back what was taken from us in a comprehensive way, it will depend on the competitive situation.

If the competitive environment is going to be intense like the first half, we will have to spend more than the second half of last fiscal year is what we think. If that is so, in October, the MNP recovered slightly. If that is the situation, then you are using it from last year’s second half in terms of sales promotion expenses. As you can see on slide 6, this waterfall chart, this 55.1 billion number, will become close to zero. It will be enough at the same level as last fiscal year, or it may take long if I talk about this here. Since last year, you have been putting a lot of efforts here. The other carriers are thinking that maybe we have to change the strategy because we cannot take back users from Docomo. I do not really feel that the competition is intensifying myself.

If that is so, you actually made the attack once, and the other competitors were like, "Okay, let’s see what’s going to happen," and held off. Then they said suddenly. They thought, "Okay, maybe this is not going to work." If they’re attacking more in terms of competition, if that is the case, if you do more, will not they come more? With the three carriers, maybe it’s not the same for Rakuten, but all three carriers will have an increase in sales promotion. The so-called hopping users that will take the benefit of this sales promotion are the only ones that will buy the handset. I think this situation is just going to expand, meaning that you have entered an endless competition. Who’s going to benefit from them is not the general users, but the users only.

Limited users who are just thinking about what benefits they can gain from using these promotions. You are the top carriers. I think this is not the strategy that you should follow, is what I think. The thing I want to ask you the most is that the second half is going to, is it truly going to become a situation where the sales promotion is going to exceed what you spent last year? If that is so, I think you’re spending too much, is my impression. As you have said, the competition is becoming a bit too intense, and there are areas that are becoming inefficient. I believe each carrier has some part feeling that way as well. For us, the IDMO’s 0.5 giga, we withdrawn from that.

What that means is that, as you have pointed out, the users of IDMO’s 0.5 giga, as a customer or user, was not a blue chip. We had to do something about it. In order to increase what will benefit us more, we came about with that decision. Having said that, competition is competition. If we say that we are going to withdraw from the competition, that means that we’re going to tolerate our users being taken away by our competitors. That means that our customer base is going to erode further. Depending on the situation, that impact is going to spread to the businesses other than the mobile communications. This is probably an issue of the industry itself. However, how we look at it is that as long as the other carriers or the competitors are attacking in terms of competition, we will have to respond to it.

Of course, how far is this going to go? We need to keep a close eye on the situation. We have to respond to this without deteriorating our customer base and at the same time stop the decline of the mobile communications service revenue and respond to the competition. That’s all we can do. However, I do not think it’s going to keep declining endlessly. We need to keep a close eye on the situation and create a structure that will thoroughly hold up to this situation. Just one more point that I wanted to confirm with you. If that is so. If you’re going to create the same picture, the same picture as the second half, this 55.1. Sales promotion expense increase, you were going to increase it anyway.

But depending on the situation, is it going to be plus minus zero, or is it going to be a 50 billion negative? Then that means that you’re going to increase, you increased it last second half, and you’re going to increase it further than that. Is it in the middle of zero and 100, or? Kobayashi, I would like to speak about the breakdown. First of all, regarding the mobile communication service revenue went down. Last year’s first half, there was a decline as well. The majority, or 80%, of that is due to the decline of the users or subscribers. We did discuss, why are we going to inject sales promotion expense? That was a discussion. Within this mobile communication service revenues decline, part of that. Now this decline, the degree of losing the users has become smaller.

The ARPU is now in the range of flat, even incorporating the poikatsu decline amount. The content of the users itself has not deteriorated. If we look from that perspective, regarding the sales promotion expenses, just looking at the current situation, it is going to probably increase compared to last fiscal year. This is not determined in order for us to come about with the guidance. We want to look at the competitive situation. This is happening at the competitors as well. Regarding the replacement timing, I think that is. That is why we believe that this sales promotion expense is going to also increase in the second half as well. Of course, we need to keep an eye on the competitors’ situation. I just want you to accept that we can’t give you the solid numbers regarding this. Just a second point.

The SBI Sumishin NetBank consolidated effect, where is that incorporated in terms of number? That’s within the smart life growth. It’s only six months since it was consolidated and the first fiscal year, the fastest allocation. The purchase plus allocation. We like to think about it in the full year’s perspective. Thank you. はい、それでは。 一番。 Fourth row from the front on the far left, please. Masuno from Nomura. I just have one question. The environment is changing, as you say. Hopefully for the full year, perhaps you can share the sales promotion expense, how much of a gap there is from the initial scenario. There is also the cost cut that you are working on. That would be positive for profit. How much additional cost reduction do you think is possible? For the mobile communication revenue, is that in line with the plan?

These are pretty simple questions, but the increase in the sales promotion expense, additional increase in cost cut, and the impact on the mobile communication service revenue. Can you clarify numerically, please? For the mobile communication service revenue, ARPU is in line with our expectations. The MAX, we had expected this to boost the ARPU a bit more, but it is not contributing as much as we had hoped for yet. The MAX migration is nearly what was EXIMO’s level, so that is in line with the plan. The net add that we were expecting was not sufficient, so that is the only negative against the full year plan. In terms of the user base, that is going to contribute for the ongoing future. That is where we are focusing on building the user base. In terms of the sales promotion expense, that is quite difficult.

This has also an impact on the provisions, and we expect that this to be a relatively large number, but we need to look at the competitive landscape. As President Shimada said earlier, we need to realize, consider what kind of assets that we can utilize or sell, or what kind of assets to make profits. In terms of the cost reduction, what we can cut, how much we can cut, that is something that we would like to work on going forward. I’m not able to provide detailed numbers at this point. I understand. I mentioned when we talked about the holdings presentation, even if there is such asset sales, that will be excluded from our valuation. I believe that it is essential to build a profit without such one-off factors.

In terms of the sales promotion, if other competitors do not stop, then you have to continue because you will lose the share. That means that theoretically, nobody can stop this competition. Those with a lower market share will continue to seek volume, and that will be the source of their funds. Then for you, you will be doing cost cuts in order to raise the fund for the sales promotion. It is really a matter of how much funds you can secure for the sales promotion, but cost cut is not something that you can realize immediately. Therefore, it is probably quite difficult compared to your peers. I feel that Docomo’s way of securing the funds for sales promotion seems to be the most tough. Cost cut is something that we are pursuing very thoroughly, and we will continue to do so into the next fiscal year.

As I mentioned, we will be utilizing different assets, and of course, we need to scrutinize what kind of assets we can utilize. For this year, next year, we will like to do our best based on these initiatives. Now, in the overall scheme of things, first of all, sales promotion is something that we do want to make as efficient as possible. Our churn is quite low. I mentioned that there was a larger number of port outs. Having said that, the absolute number of port out is relatively low compared to our competitors. How much we can further lower this is one key point. D Point, D Payment, D Card. By using these three and Ienaka service, by utilizing these different services, the churn rate could be reduced to one third. That kind of data is already available.

We will be promoting these various measures to reduce the churn rate even further. Also, for the port in, I mentioned that the Docomo Max is still midway, but by making Docomo Max even more appealing, we will be able to win more customers. This may take some time, but this is not something that we will give up. We would like to do our best to win more customers through Docomo Max. Ultimately, we need to boost our sales capabilities. There is some catching up to do in that area. We need to become more competitive in our sales activities as well and to seek more efficiency in the sales promotion at the same time. Also, the network factor, cost and investment. We need to consider how much efficiency we can win for both aspects. This is another area where we have some gap with our competitors.

Introducing the latest equipment in a large-scale manner so that we can enjoy a volume discount, that is something that we are already doing. From the fiscal year 2027, we believe that we will be able to achieve further efficiency. We will continue to improve our competitiveness with these measures. Thank you. はい、では左の。 On the left side, the person in the second row, my name is Tokunaga from Daiwa Securities. I have two questions. The first is within the briefing, you’re going to bring in the fandom through sports, but you were making a comment that it will take a certain time. Including that, the user acquisition strategy and adding value to the rate, and there was the announcement of alliance with Wawao, and also you have quite a finance business. Are you going to heighten your added value through there?

How are you going to correct your trajectory that slightly deviated? If you have something in your mind, I would like you to share that. That’s my first question. Regarding the attractiveness of the service, how that is understood is how much effort we can put into the promotional activities. It’s not just limited to sports. Within what we have added this time, as one fan, the level of fandom, where do we see it more? First is sports, and the second is music. The artists who have many fans, the live performance of them, or experiencing value, meaning that to get tickets, it will be more beneficial to use our services. By incorporating all these factors, we want to increase the customers and users that will be willingly want to use our service. In terms of posing the attractiveness to the customers, we would like to strengthen that part.

That is why we have added this time. As mentioned before, it’s not just newly selecting the other service for the new users, but also for the existing users. By making this a more attractive one, business-wise, the ARPU is going to increase. This is a very attractive service for myself, having that recognized and have it in a broad way, like as Lemino and Nimestor is added as well. I think this is going to be working positive towards boosting the average revenue. In order to do this exclusively, you need various expenses, money. As your finance, do you have quite a room for cash to do such a thing, or you don’t need to use that much of capital or cash, and alliance will suffice? At this point, the business model of purchasing and licensing the contents, well, there are various business models.

By joining the plan, it will become a positive for us. If the users join this plan, it will be positive. In terms of the contents, it’s paid in a flat manner. Basically, it’s structured in a way that the more users join us, the more the profit will increase. We have 1.5 million. We’re aiming for 3 million users for this. Compared to the upsell part, I think we believe that this fiscal year we will recoup. Next fiscal year onwards, we believe that there will be a large stack-up in terms of profitability. The second is regarding open signal. The network needs to be reinforced more and more. Still, open signal-wise, the competitors have more advantage. The network reinforcement, so with open signal, should we keep looking at you that you’re going to win through that?

For your company, you have other KPIs in mind, meaning that in terms of reinforcing the network, what should we look at to make our decision of that? For open signal, of course, we are keeping an eye on that because it’s considered to be one index in terms of comparing us with the competitors. Of course, we want to become number one in that ranking. It’s not that we are doing the things so that we will be able to achieve that. It’s more of how much of improvement we can make for the experience that the customers are sensing. It all boils down to how much base stations can we increase. That requires a lot of people. We need to roll out more and more base stations, and that is where we need to look at.

As I mentioned today, for this fiscal year, there is quite a bit more concentration in the second half in terms of base stations. Compared to the first half, we have visibility that we will be able to have a build-out that is triple what we did in the first half. Next year, we would like to front-load our efforts in the next fiscal year in the first half and progress this steadily. Thank you. 他にございますでしょうか。 Any other questions? Please. I’m Henderson from JP Morgan. I have two quick questions. From October, you said that MNP is positive. What is the reason for that? You mentioned the IRMO 0.5 giga, and that had an impact on Q2, but there is an improvement for October. Is that because you have invested more sales promotion cost compared to the previous year, or is it that you have made some strategic improvements?

I would like to ask why you were able to turn around the MNP in October. Handset price, etc., we have stepped up our efforts in October, and that has resulted in positive MNP. Thank you. This may be a repetition, but in terms of the profit growth in the next fiscal year, you have been saying that from the next fiscal year, we will be in a profit growth stage. Is that based on organic growth without the divestiture of the various assets? Do you think that organic growth is possible? This is also a repetition of what I mentioned earlier. There are some uncertainties in the environment, so we need to observe what happens in the second half and whether we can enter into this next phase of growth, as mentioned.

As you may be aware, we may need to invest quite a lot in the sales promotion with severe competition. After Q3, perhaps we would like to provide more color on the outlook. This is Kobayashi. Outside of the consumer communication, the enterprise business has been growing this year, about JPY 24 billion in growth. That is the plan, and we are on track. Every year, JPY 20 billion-30 billion profit growth from the enterprise business can be expected. For Smart Life, just looking at Q2 year on year, we are making profits, and we would like to achieve a full year, JPY 40 billion in growth. This is something that we will accelerate going forward in the next fiscal year. For network, as we have mentioned time and again, this fiscal year and into the next fiscal year, the network investment will continue.

It is not really the depreciation that is impacting, but rather the cost for the removal that is having a larger impact. How much we can reduce the increase in the investment. Impact, that is something that we need to monitor for the Q3. Thank you. リモートからもご質問を受けしたいと思います。 Now I would like to question from those of you that are participating online. For those of you who have questions, please raise your hand. No questions from those participating online? No? So for those of you in this venue, no further questions? それでは以上で。 With this, we would like to conclude the financial results explanation for FY 2025 second quarter. Following will be the NTT Data briefing. So please remain seated. Thank you very much for today. Thank you for joining us for the NTT Data’s briefing session for the six months ended September 30th, 2025. I will serve as your facilitator.

I’m Endo from IR. In terms of today’s documents, please refer to our IR website presentation materials. First, let me introduce the speakers. Representative Director, President, and CEO, Mr. Sasaki. Representative Director and Senior Executive Vice President, Mr. Nakayama. Director and Executive Vice President, CSO, Mr. Nishimura. And Senior Vice President, Head of Finance Headquarters, Mr. Kusakabe. These are the four speakers. Today, we will skip the earnings presentation and start with the Q&A session. Those of you here at the venue, please wait for the microphone after you have raised your hand. Those of you joining us remotely, please use the raise hand button of the web conference system. First, we’ll take questions from the floor. Please raise your hand if you have a question. それでは。 On the first row, on the right-hand side from my side, please. SMBC Nikko Securities, my name is Aki Gucci.

Thank you very much for today. I have two questions. The first question is regarding the domestic public and social infrastructure business. There were unprofitable projects, is what I’ve heard. So there are unprofitable projects with the government agency-related type of projects. It actually drags along. So what amount of this unprofitable project amount is recorded for the second quarter and the overall scale of the project, and what’s going to happen of that for the second half of profit line for the public and social infrastructure? Public and social infrastructure recently was performing strongly. There was one way of looking at it that it probably did increase to a peak, but there were more orders after that. Also including the treatment of unprofitable projects, what is your outlook for this business segment is what I’d like to know. Sasaki would like to answer your question.

For the second quarter, what we posted for unprofitable business for public area was JPY 3 billion in total. Basically, in the past cases in several large-scale projects and within over several quarters, there was a track record that we have posted this unprofitable amount. This time, we have actually had visibility all the way to the risk. For the third quarter and fourth quarter, our assumption is that there are no further losses that will be made. How we look at the market. We believe that it’s going to be still strong. For this, public and social infrastructure is central government and the local governments and also the telecom utility. We believe that this is going to continue to steadily grow strong. We would like to continue to bring in that demand and further grow.

As you have pointed out, for this fiscal year, on a year-on-year basis, profit-wise, it was a negative number. That means that it requires some measures to be injected. The SG&A, how that is spent, towards the second half, we would like to thoroughly look into it and control it thoroughly so that we will be able to turn around for the remaining year and next year. Two projects and 3 billion, looking at your scale of the business and comparing to the past, it’s something that shouldn’t be that worried about. Thank you very much. The second question, overseas, especially North America, you have quite a few orders of large-scale projects, was explained. What is the content of that? Recently, the continuing project of the existing customers, but also there’s the expansion. Projects receiving the large-scale orders was the explanation.

If that is the same way of thinking, how are you evaluating the orders that you have received this time? At the last press conference, you said that you want the contribution from these orders to come about from the third quarter. Around what timing is that going to be recognized? NTT Data, overall, there’s a Chief Growth Officer person that is appointed now. In acquiring the large-scale projects or targeting at the large-scale accounts, to surely acquire them is the activities that are conducted under this Chief Growth Officer. One more thing they’re working on is a global practice, meaning they’re not saying to each region to do your best, but looking at it more like a global-wide perspective, like global security or digital workplace.

These are several offerings and solutions, the offerings that utilize the Indian resources, accumulating the know-how of that, and we wanted to roll that out to several large accounts. This initiative has been worked on in a full scale since last year. Finally, we have the CGO and the global practice initiatives being well combined. Especially in North America, it has enabled them to acquire large-scale orders or projects. What’s the content of it? It’s like in cloud and security, is the large-scale project to cloud migration is one case. The contract period is three to five years, multiple years. It seems that the order received amount is larger. From the second half of this fiscal year, it is going to be booked as net sales. From the third quarter, net sales for the North American region, it is going to exceed what it has achieved last fiscal year.

The North American turnaround, based on these orders received, we would like to surely pursue it. By having the net sales being recorded or posted, that means the gross profit is also going to increase. In North America, thorough initiatives are conducted in terms of reducing the SG&A. They will be able to surely accumulate the profit. If that is so, the expansion growth, that means new orders you’re receiving, yes, quite an amount. Yes, thank you very much. はい、ご質問ありがとうございました。 Thank you for your question. Next question from the floor. If you have a question, please raise your hand. Over there, please. Matsuno from Nomura. I’d like to ask about overseas data center. In the press conference, I asked a question, "Why don’t you accelerate even more than the current plan?" You said that you will carefully select partners and consider the approach in a balanced manner.

I feel like now we are at a stage where you can take on more risk. What are your thoughts regarding taking on further risks to accelerate? What kind of reference do you take in order to make that decision? Now that you are 100% subsidiary, rather than relying on the cash from the sales to reach, I believe that you can take on more risk in that perspective as well. Becoming a 100% subsidiary of NTT, we are able to take action based on a bigger balance sheet, and we have the room to make investments with more leverage. I understand that. On the other hand, for cash allocation, there is data center, and there’s also M&A, and also investment into pure assets. There are different investment targets. Especially with regards to M&A, in the age of AI, the rules of competition are changing.

What kind of companies should we acquire in order to win in a global competition is something that we really need to strategize on. Over the next one to two years, the competitive landscape in the age of AI will start to emerge. We do not want to just bet on data centers. We would like to also consider M&A opportunities to have the optimal cash allocation. On the other hand, as you said, we have a reach, and we’re able to do a cash cycle based on that. We’re also studying possibilities for utilizing third party in making investments. Rather than leveraging our balance sheet, how much we can expand our investment, that is something that we continue to study. In terms of considering the allocation into data center, what are the indices or the environmental factors that do you look at in order to make that decision?

Is it the investment into North America? I also heard that India is more profitable. Is it the demand from India? We have placed much importance on our communication with hyperscalers. The team’s head is in North America, and the North American team is talking to the big techs on a day-to-day level. We are able to grasp the demand going forward very directly. The team is making various investments. We also look at other areas where we can complement that team and make the investment decision. Thank you very much. はい、ご質問ありがとうございました。 Thank you very much for your question. Are there any questions from the room, from the floor? If you do, please raise your hand. It seems that no further questions from the floor. We would like to ask those of you participating online if you have any questions.

First of all, Ueno-san from Daiwa Securities, please unmute and then ask your question. This is Ueno from Daiwa Securities. Can you hear my voice? Yes, we can hear you. The previous person asked the same question regarding page seven, excluding the two projects that were unprofitable, where it shows the upbringing profit trend that was JPY 3 billion. With that, there is still a JPY 2.5 billion decline in profit. If you look more in detail, on page six on net sales, the public and social infrastructure, JPY 22.6 billion increase in net sales. You are securing the increase in sales, but you have JPY 3 billion of a loss. In other areas, there is about a JPY 7.4 billion decline. What is the content of that remaining JPY 7.4 billion? Public and social infrastructure up to the upbringing profit. I would like to break down the declining factors.

About JPY 3 billion of unprofitable projects exist. In addition to that, on a gross profit basis, about JPY 3 billion is added. Gross profit in total, JPY 6 billion, we experienced a JPY 6 billion decline. As you mentioned, the sales increased, but there is about 15% growth rate. However, excluding unprofitable projects, it is still JPY 3 billion decline in profit. Last year, there was one-time large-scale, very profitable projects. That not existing this fiscal year was the largest factor. SG&A, there is an increase of about JPY 4 billion. That also was a factor to press down the upbringing profit. The JPY 4 billion in gross profit decline, and SG&A increasing by JPY 4 billion and JPY 10 billion. A total of JPY 10 billion decline.

For SG&A activities and also the orders that demand is strong, we have to hire the engineers and including the agent fee that is attached to hiring the people is also included in SG&A as well. In a full year perspective, we would like to control these areas so that we will be able to achieve the target. I just want to confirm the breakdown. Unprofitability is JPY 3 billion, and there is an additional JPY 3 billion of a gross profit because no large project that you have seen last year. Then there is SG&A and that is a total of JPY 10 billion, yes. The impact of this to the second half. This gross profit. The large project not being there is okay, but this JPY 4 billion SG&A, you probably can recover that through sales increase.

If you just compare second half and second half, there’s no remaining, right? For the SG&A, it depends on the order situation, but in the full year, we’re aiming to achieve the full year target. Sorry to be very detailed, but just looking at the enterprise, the VOJ short-term outlook, and looking at the other companies, the performance, the demand is extremely strong. For you, the enterprise net sales. Is that from JPY 279 billion to JPY 289 billion, so it’s a 1.4% increase. Is it just that the second half is lower or you’re strong at the social, financial, social infrastructure, financial, and enterprise? You’re strong. Maybe you don’t expect that much growth in enterprise, but why is this growth rate so low? What is the factor behind it? The one thing is maybe I apologize for lacking the explanation.

The payment, where this agent to collect the payment, their rate has changed, and there’s about a JPY 17 billion of that impact. Excluding this 17, if you reverse that JPY 17 billion, there’s an increase of about JPY 10 billion in revenue, JPY 20 billion. Towards manufacturing businesses, the demand is strong. As a momentum, we are placed in a very good situation. The net sales. From the gross, we change net. Include that. The enterprise is having a strong growth then. Is this going to continue into the second half? Yes, we do expect it to continue. Also regarding the data center question. Towards the holding companies and towards your companies, there’s repeating questions regarding data center. Maybe this is a different angle way of looking at it. The AI, which is strong globally, honestly speaking, I think this area has risks.

Honestly, you have to have a several trillion yen fundraising capability or else NVIDIA is not even going to look at you. Regarding this AI area, you’re not focusing that much. The data center that’s going to grow as a real business, you are focusing on the AI investment for the data centers. Is that a wrong way of looking at it, or are you going to invest in AI as well? We have an alliance with OpenAI as well, but the public giant language model, we have no intention of creating something like that. NVIDIA’s GPU, buying thousands of them and us creating a large-scale learning model, we have no intention of doing that as well. On the other hand, the private AI like Suzumi or Mistral AI, relatively small-sized model, we think that enterprise customers will utilize that more than now, and we call it private AI.

In Suzumi 2, it only requires one GPU. As NTT already made the announcement, especially. LLM that’s strong in Japanese and finance and medical areas, it’s already learning. If the customers add a learning area, then the learning speed is extremely fast. Towards those customers that are in need for that, we rent out our data center space and also combine that with the public AI to have our customers utilize AI in this combined manner. We believe that this can be rolled out globally as well. Conducting business with the hyperscalers, but in the private AI area, the government customers or manufacturing customers or finance industry customers, we would like to provide our service to them as well. In that sense, regarding AI, including the infrastructure, we would like to become in a way that we’ll be able to provide the service in a full-stack manner.

That part, I highly evaluate that. Like IBM and Oracle being very strong is that instead of trying to develop a huge AI, at the customer side, meeting the customer demands is enabling you more to make money. The AI solution, like AI agents, is something that will gain sales. Not the data center, but with AI, you’re mentioning Suzumi. Application-wise, are you already prepared or around what timing are you going to be able to record net sales? The so-called AI agent, we are paying attention to that. Up to now, we have conducted many POC, and there are actual orders that we have received in this area. We believe that there will be a business growth in this area moving forward. We are sure about that.

That is why even within the handout we wrote it, we are going to establish a new company making investments in Silicon Valley for AI agent. As several offerings, there’s something that will make into a certain template. We would like to have a thorough analysis of the customer and developing an AI agent tailored to our customers. The AI services or computing services that are tailored to the customer needs will be something that we are going to provide. It’s not that simply one can we are going to purchase packages and resell that, a lot of them. Instead of that, we are going to be on the customer’s side and provide the service that is required. As AI evolved, we will update our services also. AI, in times, will actually not tell the truth or lie to you.

In order to provide a thorough service, a managed service of our services that are provided, it’s going to become important. We would like to establish a thorough business model to provide our services. At page 17, OpenAI-related business, JPY 100 billion. An agent related. Separate from them, in 2027, JPY 300 billion is what we aim for. Agent management. I believe that you were saying JPY 100 billion for overseas. Is that true? Yes. Okay, thank you very much. That concludes the question from Ueno. 質問ありがとうございました。 それでは。 Thank you very much. Next question, please.

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