SoftBank Sells Nvidia Stake for $5.8 Billion to Fund ‘All In’ OpenAI AI Bet
London-UK, November 12, 2025
The SoftBank Group has executed a major strategic pivot, disclosing the sale of its entire remaining stake in US chipmaker Nvidia for a colossal $5.8 billion.
This bold divestment is explicitly designed to bankroll an “all in” focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), with the majority of the capital immediately earmarked for a massive planned $22.5 billion investment in OpenAI, the company behind the widely acclaimed ChatGPT chatbot.
The decision to cash out of the world’s most valuable chip firm, which has seen its valuation soar due to the AI boom, has momentarily startled investors.
However, it underscores Chairman Masayoshi Son’s unwavering conviction that SoftBank’s future—and the next trillion-dollar opportunity—lies not in the hardware that powers AI, but in the software and large language models that are defining the global AI ecosystem.
Key Headlines
Strategic Pivot:
The $5.8 billion sale of all 32.1 million SoftBank-owned Nvidia shares took place in October, effectively redirecting the funds towards new, high-growth AI ventures.
OpenAI Investment:
The proceeds will contribute to SoftBank’s commitment to invest a total of more than $30 billion into OpenAI this year, which includes the recently announced $22.5 billion tranche.
Market Reaction:
Nvidia shares initially dropped in pre-market trading following the announcement, with analysts debating whether the sale signals an AI valuation peak or simply a capital reallocation by SoftBank.
Son’s Vision:
SoftBank’s move cements its founder Masayoshi Son’s strategy to transform the Japanese conglomerate into a global powerhouse squarely focused on creating and controlling next-generation AI infrastructure and services.
The sale of the Nvidia stake, which the Japanese technology conglomerate had been quietly accumulating for the second time after a prior divestment in 2019, was confirmed during SoftBank’s recent quarterly earnings report.
The move is a classic Masayoshi Son manoeuvre: decisive, high-risk, and driven by an uncompromising vision of future technology dominance.
The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Yoshimitsu Goto, confirmed that the divestment was necessary to provide the required capital for the “very substantial” investments planned for OpenAI and other AI-related projects, which includes the colossal $500 billion Stargate project aimed at expanding US data-center capacity.
SoftBank’s decision is a direct reflection of its founder’s renewed “AI-first” philosophy. While Nvidia’s chips (specifically its H100 and A100 GPUs) are the essential, in-demand hardware driving the current AI revolution—propelling its valuation to an unprecedented $5 trillion—Son appears to view the applications and services built atop that hardware as the next, higher-leverage investment frontier.
By selling its stake in the chipmaker, SoftBank is locking in significant gains from Nvidia’s meteoric rise over the past three years while simultaneously freeing up crucial capital to chase the potentially exponential returns offered by leading generative AI platforms like OpenAI.
The capital raised from the Nvidia sale is critical to funding SoftBank’s ambitious AI plans. These plans include not only the enormous financial commitment to OpenAI, which is aimed at solidifying its position as a central player in the global AI ecosystem, but also supporting its other portfolio companies, such as the chip design firm Arm Holdings. While SoftBank no longer owns Nvidia stock, it benefits indirectly from the AI boom through Arm and other investments that rely on Nvidia’s technology.
However, the timing of the sale has raised questions among some financial analysts, stoking fresh fears that the frenzy around AI valuations may have reached its zenith. A key concern is that SoftBank, a major player known for setting market sentiment, is cashing out just as other institutional investors have begun to voice caution about inflated tech valuations. Nevertheless, the majority view remains that SoftBank’s action is one of capital allocation rather than a bearish view on Nvidia itself.
As one analyst noted, the need for over $30 billion in capital for new AI investments in a single quarter outweighs concerns about any single stock holding.
Ultimately, the $5.8 billion divestment is a strategic war chest top-up, confirming that Masayoshi Son is making a generational bet on AI.
By moving away from one of the most profitable tech stocks of the era to aggressively fund its own AI ecosystem, SoftBank has made it clear that its primary goal is to become an indispensable engine driving the next wave of global prosperity through machine learning.
