Japan's SoftBank sells its entire stake in Nvidia for $5.83 billion

This isn't SoftBank's first departure from the chipmaker. Its Vision Fund was among Nvidia's early backers, having built a $4 billion stake in 2017 before offloading its entire holding in January 2019

Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp announced on Tuesday (local time) that it has sold its entire stake in US-based chipmaker Nvidia Corp for approximately $5.83 billion, Bloomberg reported.

 

The Tokyo-based group confirmed the sale in its earnings call, where it reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the second quarter of the financial year 2025-26 (Q2FY26). Shares of SoftBank rose 2 per cent in Tokyo trading ahead of its earnings briefing.

 

This follows SoftBank increasing its Nvidia stake to around $3 billion by the end of March, amounting to 32.1 million shares. The sale of these shares contributed to the company’s Q2 net profit rising to 2.5 trillion yen ($16.2 billion). Its Vision Fund investment arm also boosted the results, mainly driven by gains from its holding in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which totalled to 2.16 trillion yen for the quarter, the report said.

 

SoftBank’s history with Nvidia

This isn’t SoftBank’s first exit from the chipmaker. The company’s Vision Fund had been an early investor in Nvidia, building a stake worth about $4 billion in 2017 before fully divesting its holdings in January 2019. Despite the sale, SoftBank remains linked to Nvidia through its artificial intelligence (AI) ventures that depend on the chipmaker’s technology, including the $500 billion Stargate data centre project in the US, reported CNBC.

 

SoftBank’s growing focus on AI and chips

SoftBank's founder, Masayoshi Son, is also planning to expand in the AI space and semiconductor infrastructure. The company has been stepping up investments in OpenAI and chip ventures, including a planned $30 billion injection into OpenAI and a proposed $6.5 billion acquisition of chip designer Ampere Computing LLC, Bloomberg reported.

 

Son is also pursuing partnerships with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest semiconductor foundry, and others on a potential $1 trillion AI manufacturing hub in Arizona, the report added.