SoftBank has announced that it has sold its entire stake in Nvidia for USD 5.83 billion, directing the capital towards financing AI investments.
SoftBank’s founder has been unwinding positions to pay for a variety of AI projects, including Stargate data centres with OpenAI and Oracle to develop manufacturing sites across the US. The Nvidia move comes during a time when debates are ongoing about whether spending by large tech companies such as Meta and Alphabet will lead to matching returns.
SoftBank’s laser focus on AI
On 12 November 2025, SoftBank’s stock dropped by over 10% in Tokyo, emphasising how investors still maintain apprehension around lofty tech valuations. Additionally, Nvidia’s shares decreased approximately 3.9% in US trading, after increasing 48% in 2025 by 10 November 2025.
SoftBank aims to position itself as a key player in the AI ecosystem, planning to utilise its stakes in sector kingpins such as OpenAI and chip designer Ampere Computing. However, on 11 November 2025, SoftBank representatives avoided any questions regarding whether the industry is fuelling an AI investment bubble, saying instead that the sale did not correlate with Nvidia itself but was an essential financing measure. In an earnings conference, officials stated that they cannot say if there is an AI bubble or not, but the company sold Nvidia to ensure that the capital can be directed towards its financing. At the time of writing, they did not elaborate further on the decision.
Moreover, this is not the first time SoftBank has sold out Nvidia, with the company doing a similar move back in 2019. However, soon after, in 2020, the company resumed buying small stakes in Nvidia, two years before the arrival of ChatGPT started a significant move. SoftBank disclosed that it scaled its stake in the US chipmaker to approximately USD 3 billion at the end of March, with Nvidia gaining over USD 2 trillion of market value since.
The initiative with ChatGPT, together with its investment in OpenAI, increased SoftBank’s bottom line, with the company reporting a net income of USD 16.2 billion in its fiscal second quarter. Additionally, OpenAI’s value has also increased by USD 14.6 billion since SoftBank invested. Now, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts, SoftBank could report its highest annual profit since 2020, with the sale of USD 5.8 billion in Nvidia shares underlining the company’s access to liquidity as it moves forward with its AI investment programme.
