GMO internet group, Inc. (TYO:9449)
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Sep 16, 2026, 1:41 PM JST
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Earnings Call: Q4 2025

Feb 12, 2026

Summary

Record net sales and operating profit were achieved, driven by recurring infrastructure and security businesses, while new growth drivers in AI, robotics, and GPU Cloud are being prioritized. Shareholder returns remain strong, and the group is accelerating AI adoption for future growth.

Masatoshi Kumagai
Founder, Chairman, and Group CEO, GMO Internet Group

Thank you very much for your time today. I'd like to get started. Results and summary. This is today's agenda. I will first talk about results and executive summary. This slide says it all. We are growing sustainably, driven by rock-solid recurring businesses. Net sales was JPY 285.6 billion, and operating profit was JPY 57.1 billion for last fiscal year.

I hope the message comes across that we are not only delivering those numbers for the year, but what's more important is that we are growing steadily. What this slide is showing is we have this project called Netto no Security mo GMO, which makes us to be the first brand people think about, top of their mind, when asked about security solutions. The project had made very good progress last year. My colleague, Yasuda, will tell you more about it in details later.

GMO GPU Cloud, as a new growth driver, has become profitable on a quarterly basis. GMO Aozora Net Bank is now benefiting from all those initiatives we have been planting, and its performance is growing rapidly and substantially thanks to the return to a positive interest rate.

We think this is going to be the first year for humanoid. We will tell you more about it later, but we want AI and robotics to be our next rock-solid recurring businesses. We are working to be the first brand people think about in this area as well.

I am currently focusing on developments of AI talents by giving 8,000 employees with reskilling opportunities. We are also looking for recruiting new graduates who are very good at using AI tools. I will keep spending my time and IQ share the most to build their capabilities.

Return to shareholders will be discussed more in details by Yasuda later. The numbers speak themselves. We had broken records in all net sales, operating profit, and ordinary profit. This is more details broken down into categories. My colleague, Yasuda, again, will tell you more about this later.

This is the summary slide by segment. We are showing the circles, double circles, triangles, and Xs as usual. They are, by the way, representation of my impressions about those businesses. The first one is infrastructure, and I gave double circles as I did for last year. Both the top and the bottom line grew, making it the 10th straight period to break this record. Operating profit was better than JPY 40 billion and helped drive consolidated performance as a core business.

Payment has grown steadily while GMO GPU Cloud has started to enjoy returns from its investment and became profitable for the quarter. This was a year where we have validated the effectiveness of strong number 1 services that are essential and cannot do without, as they form a very strong rock-solid recurring businesses.

The next one is new security segment. I gave a double circle for that as well. Both the top and bottom line grew. Brand recognition has improved thanks to Netto no Security mo GMO, and the cybersecurity business drove the net sales.

Profit did not grow year-on-year due to the timing issue in brand security business, but I gave double circle as the business is well-positioned for the future growth. I gave ads media a triangle, as sales and profit decreased.

Recurring products gained quite strongly, but transaction businesses were rather weak due to unpredictable nature of business with GAFA. Everyone in media segment teams is working very hard to bring us out of that situation by focusing on selling our own recurring product. Finance segment saw a decrease in top line, but gained on profit.

Profitability improved as one-time costs were managed before the end of last year. The performance is still soft, as our main FX businesses was affected by the market environment. It's starting to shift this year, but that was the situation last year.

Our customer base is growing, so we are in good shape to capture revenue when market starts to come back. Finally, crypto asset is triangle. This is another segment where market impact was big. Exchange business for now is experiencing low revenue.

Once that revenue from the previous year have subsided, so both the top and bottom line decreased. This segment, as you know, is having some tailwinds, such as favorable tax. So we are expecting growth in the future. This slide is year-on-year analysis for net sales and operating profit.

Today, I would like to take a moment to tell you what I am focusing on or spending my time the most, what I am giving the biggest attention in share of my mind, or what I call IQ share. This may not be a typical topic you might expect during IR, but I don't think you will know what I am doing without knowing how I am thinking about. So I would like to tell you what is going through in my mind and what I am thinking nowadays.

First, please take a look at this video clip. This was from our New Year event. This is a brief version of what I was sharing with 8,000 partners during the New Year event back in January this year. So roll the video, please. Let me just spell out three takeaways at the top. These three slides summarize what I am feeling now.

The first slide is about sense of satisfaction and achievement. We just celebrated 30 years anniversary of internet revolution on December 29th last year. I am quite happy that we have gotten here, that we are still surviving after 30 years. The second sentiment is all about challenges and sense of urgency. We are not using AI as much as we should be by a big margin. How long does it take?

I think GMO Internet Group could cease to exist if we keep going like this. That's how much urgency I'm feeling now. There is another truth to it, opportunities and sense of responsibility. We have a huge aspiration and a vision with our 55-Year Plan.

We have 8,000 partners like yourselves joining forces to provide number one services such as infrastructure, securities and much more, supported by over 17 million customers with signed contracts.

We are, in a sense, one of the organizations with a key to unlock the future of the internet, AI, and robotics for Japan. I also have this sense of responsibility that we have to do this to help Japan to grow in the future. That was the highlight of what I shared during the new year event to our 8,000 partners.

We have been promoting businesses in the internet industry now for the last 30 years. The direction in which I had been thinking or what I felt 30 years ago, I think, were proven to be the right directions. Another good thing that helped us was that we've been taking one step at a time with everyone working together.

We are here because what we have been thinking about and feeling about were the right things. That probably means we have been using right antennas. That makes me believe what I'm feeling right now probably is the right feeling to have.

I also believe that seeing problems in things or having a sense of urgency were also the right things to do. I have this constant sense of urgency and seeing problems in things over the last 30 years.

If you ask, about 90% of the business was all about hardships. I was hands down satisfied in really less than 10% of the times. Another thing that was true over the last, again, 30 years was that I saw expansive opportunities in IT revolution. We were simply all in it, doing nothing but having a deep focus on it.

Now we are privileged to be one of the largest businesses to serve over 17 million customers with infrastructures, cyber securities, internet, or being enablers for AI and robotics technologies in Japan.

All of which gives me a sense of responsibility to finish what we have started. These are the percentages. What I wanted to share with you was percentages of my mind in terms how I am feeling now. Sense of achievement or feeling satisfied is not even outside 10%, less than 10%.

Opportunities and sense of responsibility, to be very honest with you, in only 20%. 70% is about sense of urgency and the problems that we have to do something about. I want to tell you today about what I see as our problems and how urgent I feel about it. It says here, "Come on, Hiromitsu." I am now 62 years old. I started GMO Internet Group when I was 32. 30 years in internet business just flew by in the blink of an eye and I am 62.

But frankly, I am physically doing better than ever before, and my capacity has improved by 10x compared with myself one year ago. Why? That's because I am all in using AI tools. On the other hand, AI usage by 8,000 people in GMO Internet Group is by far not enough, to say the least.

That's why I see a problem where I feel a sense of urgency. I shouldn't be the most knowledgeable person about AI in all those 8,000 people. It's a huge problem if I am using AI more than anyone else. AI and robotics are the largest technological revolution in the history of humankind. This is not another technological innovation.

Not even close. This picture is often used when someone describes how human evolved from the monkeys. As you know, history of humanity goes back 300,000 years as Homo sapiens or 5,000 years if you count humanity as a civilization. If we have this chronological table, they will mark this year in bold letters, red letters, or with asterisks. That's how people will talk about this year in the future.

We are seeing small changes by days in front of our own eyes as we adopt AI, but those small changes will continue to affect us day in, day out. Just as we do not have power to stop the morning sun from rising, we will be powerless if we are trying to stop massive change that will force every industry to change in a few years.

This is, again, not another technological advancement. This might be similar to what automotive industry has done when it transformed the world. When cars appeared, streets started to look very different.

Importance of energy started to become very different. Speaking about energy, that was one of the reasons why a leader, a president of a country was, I know that is not the right word, but being abducted if you look at the world.

A single industry could change the entire industry, or renew humanity, or the civilization. I think we are at the beginning of tipping point where the civilization will go through a huge transformation. I think we need to recognize we are now standing at the doorstep of that historical moment. AI and robotics are the biggest technological revolution in human history.

That is what Andrej Karpathy, the co-founder of OpenAI, who also led AI team at Tesla, has tweeted in X. I read this 2 days after his original post on X on December 27th last year. So I read it 2 days after the post. Close to 16 million people had read it in just 48 hours. He also shares urgency about the speed in which AI revolution is going through.

If you can catch up with the speed in which technology is changing with AI, someone like Andrej Karpathy of the world could bring himself to perform TEDx. What should we do? What he is saying is that we all have to roll up our sleeves. Do you share this sensitivity or not? I feel that is the fork in the road that divides chimps from humanity.

This conference was held at Davos just 2 weeks ago. Demis at Google DeepMind was speaking with Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic. It is a kind of a big splash at the top of the AI world that you can find at YouTube. They discuss about what they think will happen this year, how labor market is shifting in a big way, and existential threat for humanity. I recommend you to watch it too.

What they said was, Dario said AGI is coming next year. He also said majority of works by software engineers will be done by AI in just a matter of half a year or about in 1 year. Both of them also agree that it is no longer engineers' job to write codes. Their job already has shifted to review and edit codes written by AI.

They were saying that progress will be exponential when AI accelerates the speed of coding and research on AI itself. They say AI will be writing its own code, meaning it will evolve itself. They also said that impact will shock labor markets as junior engineers will no longer be required. Andrej Karpathy is making similar comments that we have to become unbelievably good at using those new AI tools, and he says that is the one and only way to manage it.

I am feeling the change firsthand myself. It has been 30 years since I started the internet business. I would say until the year 2027 or 3 years ago, I felt things are changing by days or by months, but now I feel the speed is so fast, things are changing by seconds or by minutes. What is happening in the last 2 weeks were even more shocking.

IT revolution was happening in the first 27 years. AI revolution has started 3 years ago, and I am feeling the biggest change of its kind in the last 2 weeks. That is how I feel about this. This is my tweet on X back in February 9th.

The biggest surprise of it all last week came from Anthropic. We saw Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Claude Team, Claude in Excel, Claude for PowerPoint, but we saw more.

These are a group of dedicated plugins from Claude Cowork, and you know values of software as a service companies are coming down fast around the world. The share prices are reflecting people's fear that those service businesses will no longer be needed. The other thing that happened in those 2 weeks was OpenClaw.

It was called CloudBot or WolfBot and OpenClaw. The names of the service kept changing about 3 times in a week or in 10 days. Putting aside the reason for changing names, I want to instead focus on why I think OpenClaw was so shocking.

If you install OpenClaw on your PC or on your server, it will keep learning languages unbeknownst to us, look for our phone numbers unbeknownst to us, the owners, and make a phone call to me the next day.

What it is that self-evolution or self-development of AI is already real. I feel that will be in a huge problem if we do not catch up and learn about it. The fork in the road that divided chimp from human, I think is right in front of us in the year 2026. We have expanded the internet in the first 27 years.

This helped minimize information gaps. All kinds of information are now made available in our smartphones without cost, time-wise, or money-wise. On the contrary, AI has been spreading in the last 3 years, and it is widening the gap amongst people. What I think could happen is that the gap can be as significant as what divides chimp from human if we do not deal with AI.

That is why we, as GMO Internet Group, need to step up and become the best-in-class users of AI tools in the world. To give you some ideas, the best AI talents are using different AI tools for different tasks. This is like a fit AI for a job, akin to the concept of fit talent for a job. We call them AI orchestrators.

All 8,000 of us need to be elevated to become AI orchestrators. Not only that, all 8,000 of us need to become vibe coders as well. I am not only talking about engineers and creators. Non-engineers also need to become one. I have been saying over and over for the last 6 months that routine works need to adopt RPAs and macros, and vibe coding is a great approach in setting up macros.

Furthermore, we have introduced GMO AI Boost Grant program. In this program, all 8,000 partners must use a certain amount of money for paid AI every month. In general, I believe companies allow their employees to use a certain AI only and discourage them from using any AI. We are the opposite.

Naturally, after securing information security, we are encouraging our partners to utilize any paid AI possible that would contribute to enhancing their work efficiency. We are currently spending JPY 1 billion for our partners to utilize AI proactively, and we plan to more than double this cost.

We also have GMO AI Day. This is a day when partners are allowed to use AI only. They are not allowed to use anything other than AI tools on this day. The objective is to promote reskilling of AI for all 8,000 partners.

As a result, in 2027, on November 30th, the day when OpenAI released ChatGPT, this will be their fifth birthday. By this date, we want to sublimate to a hyper-automated corporate group that fully utilizes AI agents. This is the current target we set. This means 100% of our 8,000 partners will be utilizing X number of AI agents.

The number will be set as a target in the future and will be utilizing RPA. Ladies and gentlemen, AI robotics is the greatest technological revolution in human history. Every one of our 8,000 partners fully utilizing AI or AI agents.

In case of humans, we need to eat, drink, and in my case, I sometimes slack off, which means 8 hours is the maximum I can work. But in case of AI and AI agents, they can operate a full 24 hours as long as electricity is supplied.

Therefore, in terms of time efficiency, AI is 3 times higher since it is 8 hours versus 24 hours. Assuming a single partner is able to run 3 AI agents, time efficiency of 3 times higher multiplied by 3 AIs means 9 times higher. This means labor power of 8,000 people is sublimated into 72,000 people, 9 times greater.

When you add 8,000 people to this, the power will be 10 times, which is worth 80,000 people's power. This is a simplified mathematics. We sublimate 8,000 people to 80,000 people power, 10 times higher, and focus on offering infrastructure or service infrastructure for AI and robotics industry, and sublimate to be an indispensable corporate group in the world.

As a result, we will become the biggest AI, robotics, and internet group that thrives over hundreds of years. Internet for everyone. This concludes my presentation. After this, Yasuda will be explaining the details.

Masashi Yasuda
Director,EVP, and Group CFO, GMO Internet Group

I am Yasuda. Now, I will explain the progress of our group's key topics in the area of security, AI, and robotics. Let me start with security first. As was mentioned in the last earnings call as well, we are focusing on security business. We have three key security areas. First, cryptographic security, the second, cybersecurity, and the third, brand security.

This is the summary of the three security businesses. First is cryptographic security. Leveraging our technical and operational expertise as a certification authority, we offer recurring revenue products centered on digital certificates and digital seals. The second is cybersecurity. The biggest strength we have is the advanced skills of the strongest white hat hackers in the world.

In addition to vulnerability assessments and penetration testing conducted by white hat hackers possessing such technical expertise, incorporating their insights into products is also expanding our recurring revenue offerings.

The third is brand security. Leveraging our expertise in intellectual property management for domains and trademarks, we offer services and products you see here. Under the slogan, "A safe future for everyone," we started Netto no Security mo GMO project last February, which I will report the progress of now.

This project is an ongoing initiative to establish top-of-line brand recognition. The upper part of the page shows initiatives through continuous offering of products and services. The lower part shows our initiatives in hosting major conferences and other events. We are aiming to penetrate our brands steadily through such efforts. I will introduce a number of them today. This is Kigyoumei.

With the proliferation of generative AI, impersonification and phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticated. One of the solutions is Brand TLD, the so-called .Kigyoumei. Unlike traditional .com or .co.jp domains, using the company name itself as the top-level domain makes the domain itself a brand identifier.

We also switched to .gmo domain from gmo.jp to group.gmo. We consider this the ultimate anti-phishing measure as it demonstrates authenticity at the domain level. Notably, applications are being accepted for the first time in 14 years, and the next application period is undetermined.

The application will open at the end of April. We are witnessing strong inquiries driven by demand for brand protection. We will steadily cultivate this as a new pillar of recurring revenue, one that promises high prices and high retention rates.

Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Lieutenant General Hiroe has been appointed as the general manager of Group Cyber Defense Division 6. The name 6 originates from functional code responsible for information communications and cyber domains within the defense organization. Mr. Hiroe has overseen the communications and cyber defense domain within the Self-Defense Forces.

Cybersecurity is an area that the government has designated as a priority field from the perspective of national security and economic security. By combining that national-level expertise with our technological capabilities, we will further strengthen our security business. We established a joint venture, MUFG GMO Security, with MUFG Bank.

The biggest significance of this is that we have established a structure to be able to offer cybersecurity solution to MUFG's customer base. We will broaden the scope of our security business by combining our technology with MUFG's customer network. Prime Strategy has joined our group.

After the approval at the general meeting of shareholders in February, we plan to change its name to GMO Prime Strategy. The company's KUSANAGI service is a platform that runs websites with high speeds and stability. We will be able to offer fast, secure, and uninterrupted, all-in-one integrated web environment.

We will pursue growth in recurring revenue through strong synergies with infrastructure and security domains. Last of all is about The 3rd GMO Conference Cybersecurity 2026. This will be hosted as one of the largest security conferences in Japan.

Leaders from defense, government, research institutes, technology companies, and other frontline organizations in this field will gather together. It is not merely an event, but a symbol of our company functioning as a hub in the security field. Through a cross-sector network spanning government, academia, and industry, we will work to create business opportunities and foster industry development.

This event will be held on March 5th at Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, which is our headquarter building number one. We sincerely hope investors will join us and experience the energy on the ground firsthand.

Now, I will explain about our initiatives in AI and robotics. As Kumagai mentioned earlier, we will position 2026 as the first year of the humanoid era and aim to establish top-of-mind brand recognition.

Our role is not robot manufacturing, but providing infrastructure that supports operations. For robots to operate safely in society, in addition to communication, cloud services, and security, it is essential to have a mechanism that accumulates operational data and continuously optimizes it through machine learning. With our expertise in infra operations and large-scale data processing, we will support the introduction, utilization, and further advancement of robotics.

By leveraging existing infra and security operations, we will cultivate AI robotics as a medium to long-term growth strategy. The world's greatest minds and capital are converging on this field, and in the near future, 2026 will undoubtedly be recognized as the year humanoid technology took off.

AI exists only within computer and smartphone screens, but only when installed in humanoids will it physically transform the world. This physical AI is not merely a technological innovation, but a civilizational turning point that will rewrite the industrial landscape itself.

We announced AI CEO Masatoshi Kumagai in December, two years ago. In September last year, we have announced the AI CEO humanoid Masatoshi Kumagai, utilizing our proprietary G1 technology. I would like to share a message about Kumagai's humanoid, Masatoshi Kumagai.

The real Kumagai works 8 hours a day, but humanoid Masatoshi Kumagai can work 24/7 as long as electricity is fed. Simply three times time efficiency. Furthermore, there are unlimited copies you can make of the humanoid. On the other hand, there is just one Kumagai, and every year he ages.

Three times the infinite is infinite. Humanoid has unlimited potential. This is the message from Kumagai. We established GMO AI & Robotics Corporation, in short, GMO AIR, two years ago, and launched a robot setting service in April last year.

The hurdle to introduce robots were the initial investment and securing of talents with specialized knowledge to operate robots. GMO AIR is a model that selects the optimal robot for each application and provides comprehensive support, including setup and operational assistance.

The key feature is that it can be introduced with a focus on utilization rather than the purchase itself. We are currently receiving inquiries from a wide range of industries, including events, manufacturing sites, and are progressing from the demonstration phase to full scale implementation.

This is about GMO Robot Lab Shibuya. From April 2026, we will open Japan's largest robot lab inside our headquarters, Building Number One. This is not simply a space to display, but rather a hub for demonstration, verification, and business negotiations to accelerate the social implementation of humanoids.

We will be utilizing this hub as a gathering place for diverse stakeholders, including development companies, implementing companies, media, and investors. Next, as a part of our initiatives in the AI and robotics field, we will explain our generative AI service, Tenbin AI. Tenbin AI is a service that allows you to ask questions to multiple Gen AIs simultaneously and compare their responses. Please watch the video.

Speaker 3

[Presentation]

Masashi Yasuda
Director,EVP, and Group CFO, GMO Internet Group

Gen AIs each have their strengths and weaknesses, and relying on a single one may not always yield the optimal answer. Comparing multiple AI models simultaneously enables more accurate decision-making. Recently, we have been continuously updating features such as automated comparative evaluation and concurrent image generation.

We offer this service to businesses on a monthly subscription model and will cultivate it as a new pillar of recurring revenue. Finally, here is the overall picture of our service expansion centered on infra security products. To date, we have focused on infra businesses to leverage synergies and build a solid foundation recurring revenue base.

Currently, our security business has entered an expansion phase across all aspects, human resources, customer base, and product, and is building a stronger position. We will position AI and robotics as key drivers of medium to long-term growth going forward, cultivating them as new, solid, recurring revenue source.

By continuously offering value that will never disappear and that is indisputable, we will realize sustainable growth over mid to long term. Next, I will talk about the group overview. This slide shows a lineup of major products of our group. These are all proprietary products developed and operated in-house.

Out of these, customer base for infra, security, internet finance, and crypto assets exceed 21 million in total. Next is performance by business. This is our full-year results trend for internet infra. Leveraging its rock-solid recurring revenue model as a strength, we achieved record high for the 10th consecutive fiscal period.

In fiscal 2025, centering around our GPU Cloud, cloud rental servers and payment services performed well. We have been able to make an important announcement related to rapidly growing GPU Cloud. GMO Internet included a partnership agreement with Turing Inc., a startup aiming to realize full autonomous driving utilizing AI.

Equity investment will be made, and computing resources will be provided over the coming 4 years. GMO Internet Group has also made investment in Turing Inc. last year. For more information on the progress of GMO GPU Cloud, please refer to GMO Internet's earnings materials. This is Internet Security's full-year results trend.

Sales and gross profit remained strong, primarily driven by cybersecurity, while the cryptographic security business operated by GMO GlobalSign Holdings K.K. also performed solidly. We are proactive in making investments for future growth, such as products and adopting resources.

This is GMO AIR's mid to long-term growth outlook, which announced the start of preparations for its IPO today. As the basis, there is existing services centering around vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. This is an area where demand is expected to continue growing against a backdrop of growing societal demand.

Next is the expansion into new domains driven by the broadening scope of areas cybersecurity must cover. We will expand our service offerings to address critical themes that businesses and nations must tackle, as shown here. Furthermore, through our joint venture with MUFG, we will expand our services to MUFG's customer base.

Then scaling up through productization. By productizing the expertise of white hat hackers, we will expand our portfolio of recurring revenue products. We will continue to aim for sustainable growth. This is online advertising and media's full year results trend, which was a decrease in sales and profit.

The industry-wide trend toward AI-driven advertising operations, coupled with the significant shift toward in-house advertising management by clients, bypassing agencies, led to a challenging advertising environment. In the internet media, subscription-based services expanded. Next is full year results trend of internet finance.

Revenue declined due to reduced profitability from range-bound markets for FX, while CFD revenue decreased due to lower profitability resulting from spread reductions aimed at expanding the customer base. Profit increased due to the recognition of approximately JPY 9.5 billion in provisions for doubtful accounts related to the Thai business and other items in previous fiscal year. On the other hand, the customer base remains solid.

FX traders and margin deposits are progressing steadily, and we believe the foundation is in place to generate solid profits once trading activity returns. The last is full year results of crypto assets business.

Revenue declined due to lower profitability resulting from range-bound market conditions in the latter half of the year. Next, I will explain GMO Aozora Net Bank, a key initiative in our group growth strategy. GMO Aozora Net Bank is an equity-method affiliate, and we recognize 50% of its earnings.

Quarterly results are as shown. Revenue and profits have increased significantly compared to the previous year, contributing to the improvement in consolidated ordinary income. Transaction revenue, including transfer fees, continues to grow due to the sustained expansion of corporate accounts. Interest income has also increased due to the rise in deposit balances.

These are the key KPIs, the number of corporate accounts, and the number of BaaS by GMO Aozora contracts. As shown here, our customer base is steadily expanding, as evidenced by our ranking as number 1 for 2 consecutive years in the Main Bank Growth Rate Survey conducted by Tokyo Shoko Research. Another key KPI, the number of BaaS by GMO Aozora contracts, is also steadily increasing. Last of all, this is deposit balance.

This growth is the result of our strategy of specializing in corporate clients and the high regard we have earned from our small to medium-sized enterprises and startup clients. Given the policy interest rate hike, steady growth in interest income is also anticipated. The bank will continue to serve as a key growth engine for the group as the next generation tech bank.

Finally, I will explain the One Account initiative, a new undertaking originating in the financial sector. This is an OpenID integration platform that enables participation by companies both within and outside the group.

We have already begun collaboration in certain financial services, such as securities and crypto assets, and will gradually expand the range of services covered. By building an environment where a single ID can be used across multiple services, we enhance user convenience and achieve efficient customer acquisition.

Furthermore, we will collaborate with external companies to build an open ecosystem. Let me give an update on sustainability management. Let me start with human capital strategy. As Kumagai mentioned, we are focusing on the development and utilization of AI talent as one of our top priorities.

First, we will realize full use of AI. We assume all partners will master AI usage and promote its practical application through systems like the one shown here. At the same time, we are enhancing AI talent recruiting. We are continuously investing in recruiting highly skilled AI talent, including our new graduate program with an annual salary of JPY 7.1 million.

Through these two pillars, we are advancing our evolution into hyper-automation corporate group. I will report two things on the progress of sustainability management. Last year, we published our first edition of integrated reports.

We delved into the GMOism that underpins our sustainable growth. Please take a look. Also, through the sustainability disclosure, our FTSE score has also improved. As for our approach to enhancing corporate value, we will be rewarding shareholders through commitment to both growth and shareholder returns. Based on our 55-Year Plan, we aim to achieve 15% or more of annual growth of operating profits.

We are upholding quarterly dividend payments with total payout ratio of 50% or higher. We will also consider introduction of DOE to ensure peace of mind to investors by showing the minimum dividends.

The total payout ratio is set at 50%, with 33% allocated to dividends based on the consolidated net income and the remaining 17% allocated to share buybacks and cancellations. I will reiterate our long-term goals for share buybacks and cancellations and report on our progress.

In 2007, when we withdrew from the loan credit business, we were forced to issue approximately 38.35 million new shares to strengthen our capital. We firmly believe that acquiring and canceling all approximately 38.35 million shares is necessary as a way of returns.

For this reason, we have established a target for the total payout ratio, which includes share buyback. The status of treasury stocks acquired and canceled are as shown. When setting our goals, we were prepared for a long-term commitment. But thanks to all the support, we feel we are making progress well ahead of schedule.

We are presenting it again as a goal that must be achieved. This is the new share buyback program we announced today. This is the track record of shareholder returns. You will notice that total payout ratio has been trending above the 50% basic policy. Total payout ratio against net profit in fiscal 2025 will be 112%, far exceeding the 50%. This concludes the earnings call today. Thank you for your attention. Internet for all