The why behind SoftBank’s Nvidia stake sale

SoftBank has sold its entire $5.83 billion Nvidia stake, a move that isn’t a retreat from AI but a massive strategic move. The cash is being used to fund a $6.5 billion all-cash acquisition of a smaller, private AI chip designer: Ampere Computing.

The Japanese conglomerate confirmed the sale of 32.1 million Nvidia shares in its Tuesday earnings statement. While the sale helped SoftBank post a blowout $19 billion gain for its Vision Fund, the move is less about profit-taking and more about funding a massive, $30.5 billion spending spree planned for this quarter alone.

The $5.83 billion from the chipmaker, combined with a separate $9.17 billion T-Mobile stake sale, provides the capital for a new, aggressive phase in CEO Masayoshi Son’s AI ambitions.

“We want to provide a lot of investment opportunities for investors, while we can still maintain financial strength,” said SoftBank’s Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto during an investor presentation, reports CNBC.

This move is a direct “swap” in strategy. The company is cashing out its passive investment in the current market leader, Nvidia, to acquire a direct competitor.

The $6.5 billion Ampere acquisition, which is closing this quarter, signals a massive strategic shift. Instead of just holding stock in an AI company, SoftBank is moving to own the AI infrastructure itself.

Ampere is a U.S.-based semiconductor firm that designs high-performance, energy-efficient processors specifically for data centers and AI workloads.

The key connection: Ampere’s chips are built on the Arm architecture.

SoftBank, which owns a majority stake in Arm, is now doubling down on its own ecosystem. By acquiring Ampere, Masayoshi Son is betting that he can build a powerful, vertically integrated alternative to Nvidia’s dominant platform.

While selling Nvidia—a stock SoftBank has sold out of twice now—may look like a mistake to some, Son is playing a different game. He’s no longer content to be a passenger in the AI boom; he’s using the cash from his former Nvidia stake to try and build the engine.

Featured image credit