The Japanese holding company SoftBank has completely exited its equity stake in NVIDIA, selling all shares for $5.83 billion in October 2025. This move is part of a strategy to realign assets for further large-scale investment – up to $40 billion – in the artificial intelligence developer OpenAI by the end of the year.
This is reported by Business • Media
SoftBank’s Investment Strategy: From Chips to Artificial Intelligence
According to the financial report for the first half of the year, SoftBank and its asset management subsidiary have completed the sale of NVIDIA shares for the second time. The first exit from the chipmaker’s capital occurred back in 2019 after acquiring a stake worth $4 billion in 2017. According to Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto, the sale was an important step in implementing a new investment strategy:
“Since SoftBank’s investment in OpenAI is very large, the company had to utilize existing assets to finance new investments.”
It has been officially confirmed that SoftBank plans to invest up to $40 billion in OpenAI, of which $30 billion will be equity and another $10 billion will be debt. The investment is divided into two phases: $10 billion has already been invested in April, and $22.5 billion is planned for December following changes to the October deal.
To realize these plans, SoftBank raised ¥620 billion (approximately $4.1 billion) through bonds, $4.2 billion from foreign loans, and also arranged loans of $8.5 billion for OpenAI and $6.5 billion for ABB Robotics.
Financial Results and Market Impact
SoftBank’s investments in OpenAI are part of a long-term mission aimed at developing artificial superintelligence (ASI) to support humanity, with a focus on artificial intelligence, robotics, data centers, and energy. According to the financial report, the company’s Vision Fund generated $23.4 billion in profit for the quarter due to the revaluation of OpenAI’s assets at $260 billion, of which $14.3 billion came directly from OpenAI. This allowed SoftBank’s net profit to more than double to $19.3 billion (¥2.924 trillion).
The decision to completely sever ties with NVIDIA came as a surprise to the market, as NVIDIA announced its own intention in September to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI for the joint development of 10 GW data centers.
It is worth noting that in October, OpenAI completed a restructuring, splitting into the commercial corporation OpenAI Group and the non-profit foundation OpenAI Foundation. This allowed the company to attract new investments without prior legal restrictions. SoftBank stated its readiness to proceed with financing immediately after this process was completed.
At the beginning of October, it became known that OpenAI’s valuation reached $500 billion, making it the most valuable private company in the world, surpassing SpaceX.