‘Didn’t want to sell a single share’: SoftBank founder says he was ‘crying’ while offloading Nvidia stake - here’s why

SoftBank's Masayoshi Son revealed he 'was crying' while selling Nvidia shares, a painful but necessary move to fund AI ventures like OpenAI. Despite the emotional toll, Son emphasized the critical need for capital for future AI investments, dismissing concerns about an AI bubble and predicting its immense long-term economic impact.
SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son revealed that he “was crying” when he sold the company’s stake in Nvidia, highlighting how reluctant he was to part with the fast-rising chipmaker. This emotional exit raises a key question — what compelled Japan’s second-richest man to give up the shares despite not wanting to? Speaking at the FII Priority Asia forum in Tokyo on Monday, Son addressed SoftBank’s November disclosure that it had sold its full Nvidia holding for $5.83 billion. He said that the move was driven purely by the need to raise capital for AI investments and not lack of confidence in Nvidia.
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He acknowledged the emotional difficulty of the sale and stressed that the shares would not have been offloaded if SoftBank did not need the money. “I don’t want to sell a single share. I just had more need for money to invest in OpenAI and other projects,” Son said during the event, as cited by CNBC. “I was crying to sell Nvidia shares.” His comments reflect the explanation provided by analysts and SoftBank executives in November, when they described the sale as part of broader efforts to bolster the SoftBank Vision Fund’s cash resources for AI. SoftBank has intensified its focus on artificial intelligence this year through a series of projects, including plans for Stargate Project data centres and the acquisition of US chip designer Ampere Computing.
Turning to ChatGPT
SoftBank’s AI push also includes a substantial bet on OpenAI. The Japanese company could “potentially” increase its investment in the ChatGPT maker depending on performance and the valuation of further rounds, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to CNBC. Earlier this year, Son said SoftBank was “all in” on OpenAI and predicted that the AI startup would one day become the most valuable company in the world. The bet has already delivered financial benefits, with SoftBank reporting last month that its second-quarter net profit more than doubled to 2.5 trillion yen ($16.6 billion), driven by valuation gains in its OpenAI holdings. Questions around the scale of investment going into AI have fuelled market concerns about the possibility of an AI bubble. Son pushed back against that view during his speech on Monday, arguing that critics are underestimating the sector. He said that those who talk about an AI bubble are “not smart enough” and predicted that “super [artificial] intelligence” and AI robots will generate at least 10% of global gross domestic product over the long term, which he said would outweigh trillions of dollars of investment in the technology.
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