SoftBank sells entire Nvidia stake for $7.6b, stirring AI bubble fears

SoftBank Group’s sale of its entire US$5.8 billion (S$7.6 billion) stake in artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia jolted stock markets on Nov 11, stoking fears that the frenzy around Al may have peaked, especially after warnings from Wall Street bank chiefs and a famed short seller.

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In its quarterly results, the Japanese investor said it sold all the 32.1 million Nvidia shares it held in October to bankroll chief executive Masayoshi Son’s sweeping AI push, built around his “all-in” bet on ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

SoftBank needs the proceeds for initiatives including the US$500 billion Stargate project to expand US data-centre capacity and as much as US$40 billion in funding pledged to OpenAI.

“I can’t say if we’re in an Al bubble or not,” chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto said during an earnings conference on Nov 11. SoftBank sold Nvidia “so that the capital can be utilised for our financing”, he added.

The timing of its sale deepened some investor doubts that valuations in the Al industry might have gone ahead of fundamentals.

Shares of SoftBank plunged as much as 10 per cent in morning Tokyo trading on Nov 12. Nvidia's shares slid 3 per cent in US trading on Nov 11, after climbing 48 per cent in 2025.