At a Tokyo forum, Masayoshi Son says he “was crying” over SoftBank selling its $5.83B Nvidia stake but “I just had more need for money to invest in OpenAI”
here's why FII Institute on YouTube : FII PRIORITY Asia | Watch the official livestream (En) Markus Kasanmascheff / WinBuzzer : SoftBank's Masayoshi Son Says He ‘Cried’ About Selling Nvidia Stake to Fund OpenAI Bet Ben Shimkus / Daily Mail : ‘Warren Buffett of tech’ admits the real reason he sold his $15B stake in world's biggest company after sale sent panic through Wall Street Naomi Li Gan / Tech in Asia : SoftBank sells Nvidia stake to raise funds for AI projects: CEO Bluesky: Ed Bott / @edbott.com : “I had to sell my Pet Rocks to buy more Beanie Babies.” — You '90s kids will understand. [embedded post] Forums: r/technews : SoftBank's Son ‘was crying’ about the firm's need to sell its Nvidia stake
Context & Ripple Effects
SoftBank had been rebuilding its exposure to AI-related public equities: filings showed it increased its Nvidia position and added TSMC shares in the first half of 2025. The subsequent full Nvidia exit therefore marks a deliberate shift from a liquid, chipmaker-linked holding toward funding a private AI investment.
The explanation adds rationale to SoftBank’s October disposal of its entire Nvidia position: the sale was not simply profit-taking, but part of capital allocation for OpenAI.
First-order effects
- SoftBank converts a $5.83B Nvidia holding into capital available for its OpenAI investment, reducing its direct exposure to Nvidia’s future share-price movements.
- Masayoshi Son publicly frames the trade-off as funding priority rather than a change in SoftBank’s view of Nvidia.
Second-order effects
- SoftBank’s returns become more dependent on the execution and financing of its OpenAI exposure, rather than on a listed semiconductor investment that had previously supported results.
- The move illustrates how investors can fund large private-AI commitments by monetizing liquid AI beneficiaries, linking public-market gains more directly to private-AI funding capacity.
Third-order effects
- If repeated by major AI investors, this pattern would concentrate AI risk in fewer, larger private bets while making public chip holdings a source of financing rather than a long-term destination.
- It points to AI infrastructure finance becoming increasingly shaped by portfolio liquidity and capital recycling, not only by operating cash flows.
The trend: AI investors are reallocating gains and liquidity from public infrastructure winners into larger, more concentrated private AI commitments.