‘I Was Crying’: Softbank Chief Masayoshi Son Reportedly Sold Nvidia Only To Raise Cash For OpenAI Investment

• SoftBank offloaded its entire stake in Nvidia for $5.83 billion in October.
• This was not the first time SoftBank exited Nvidia – in 2019, the company’s Vision Fund announced it had sold its entire stake in the chipmaker, valued at $3.63 billion.

SoftBank Group Corp. (SFTBY) CEO Masayoshi Son reportedly said on Monday that he did not want to offload the Japanese investment company’s stake in Nvidia Corp. (NVDA).

According to a Bloomberg report, he said he would not have sold Nvidia shares if SoftBank had unlimited funds for its next round of investments in the artificial intelligence sector.  Son was addressing the FII Priority Asia forum on Monday in Tokyo. 

“I don’t want to sell a single share. I just had more need for money to invest in OpenAI. I was crying to sell Nvidia shares,” Son said, according to the report.

Nvidia shares were down nearly 1% in Monday’s pre-market trade. Retail sentiment around the company trended in the ‘bullish’ territory at the time of writing.

OpenAI is not publicly listed. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the company hovered in the ‘extremely bearish’ territory at the time of writing.

SoftBank’s NVDA Stock Sale

SoftBank offloaded its entire stake in Nvidia for $5.83 billion in October. A CNBC report citing a person familiar with the matter stated that SoftBank’s stake sale in Nvidia was conducted to help the company fund its investment in OpenAI.

This was not the first time SoftBank exited Nvidia. In 2019, the company’s Vision Fund announced that it had sold its entire stake in Nvidia in January, valued at $3.63 billion.

SoftBank’s OpenAI Investment

In April, SoftBank announced follow-on investments of up to $40 billion in OpenAI, of which $10 billion would be syndicated through the Japanese company’s co-investors. This brought SoftBank’s effective investments in OpenAI to $30 billion.

In October, days after selling its Nvidia stake, SoftBank approved the remaining $22.5 billion investment in OpenAI, according to a report by The Information.

NVDA stock is up 32% year-to-date and 31% over the past 12 months.

Also See: Dow Futures Edge Lower Ahead Of Powell Speech, Fed Rate Cut Odds Rise: TSLA, NIO, MSTR, MDB Among Stocks To Watch

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

Share

·

Add us on