The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, according to regulatory filings. It bought around US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, the filings show.
That was while SoftBank’s signature Vision Fund monetised almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of 2025, according to a person familiar with the fund’s activities.
The Vision Fund prioritises its returns on investment and there is no particular pressure from SoftBank to monetise its assets, said the person who asked not to be named discussing private information. A representative of SoftBank declined to comment.
At the heart of SoftBank’s AI ambitions is chip designer Arm Holdings. Son, who serves as chairman and CEO at SoftBank, is gradually building a portfolio around the Cambridge, UK-based company with key industry players, seeking to catch up after largely missing a historic rally that had made Nvidia into a US$4 trillion behemoth and boosted its contract chipmaker TSMC to near a US$1 trillion value.
“Nvidia is the picks and shovels for the gold rush of AI,” said Ben Narasin, founder and general partner of Tenacity Venture Capital, referring to a concerted effort by the world’s largest technology companies to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to get ahead. SoftBank’s purchase of the US company’s stock may buy more influence and access to Nvidia’s most sought-after chips, he said. “Maybe he gets to skip the line.”
