SoftBank cashes out $5.8bn Nvidia stake to fund OpenAI bet
Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank surprised investors by announcing it sold its entire stake in Nvidia for about $5.83 billion to fund more AI bets.
The Tokyo-based conglomerate said it sold about 32 million shares of the U.S. chipmaker last month to build capital for its growing investment in OpenAI. Nvidia shares fell 1.5% Tuesday in early U.S. trading.
Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said in translated comments that the decision had “nothing to do with Nvidia itself.” He said: “This year our investment in OpenAI is significant, more than $30 billion needs to be made. For this we need to divest our existing portfolios.”
He added: “We want to offer numerous investment opportunities to investors, while maintaining our financial strength. »
SoftBank’s results for the six months ended September showed profits nearly tripled from a year earlier, climbing to around 2.5 trillion yen ($13 billion). Revenue rose 7.7% to 3.7 trillion yen ($24 billion).
A $19 billion profit from the group’s Vision Fund partly fueled these gains, reflecting higher valuations of tech stocks and AI in general. The fund has grown in the field of AI, particularly in semiconductors, robotics and large language models.
“The reason we were able to achieve this result is that September last year was the first time we invested in OpenAI,” Goto said.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has positioned the group as a central player in the global development of AI. In February, he appeared with President Donald Trump, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison to unveil a $500 billion AI infrastructure project called Stargate.
But it also comes as concerns grow that the AI market is overheating, as tech companies invest billions in new projects. Some investors have warned that valuations have exceeded actual profits. Asked about these fears, Goto said: “I can’t say whether we are in an AI bubble or not. »
