SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son offered rare insight into the company’s unexpected sale of its entire Nvidia stake, framing the move not as a shift in conviction but as a forced trade to free capital for what he describes as a once-in-a-century artificial intelligence opportunity. Speaking at the FII Priority Asia forum in Tokyo, Son said he “cried” over the sale, emphasizing that SoftBank would have held every share if its financial capacity were unlimited. The disclosure adds new dimension to SoftBank’s aggressive repositioning as the company accelerates investments in AI infrastructure, chip development, and deeper collaboration with leaders such as OpenAI.

A Painful Sale Amid Soaring Ambitions

The Nvidia exit shocked markets last month given SoftBank’s long history with the chipmaker, which started when it held a sizable stake through the acquisition of Arm Ltd. years earlier. Son made clear that the liquidation was not driven by souring sentiment but by necessity. SoftBank needed capital to fund a sprawling next phase of AI expansion—ranging from hyperscale data centers to chip architecture and major equity injections into AI model developers.

Son specifically cited planned investments in OpenAI and SoftBank’s data-center ambitions, including the “Stargate” initiative with Hon Hai Precision Industry, as key drivers. The combination, he argued, requires levels of upfront capital so significant that difficult tradeoffs were unavoidable. “I don’t want to sell a single share,” he said. “I just had more need for money to invest in OpenAI and other projects.”

SoftBank’s repositioning suggests Son sees a narrowing window to capture strategic leadership in AI infrastructure, even if it requires sacrificing one of the most valuable holdings in SoftBank’s history.

Rejecting the AI Bubble Narrative

Son also took aim at commentators warning that AI investment has entered bubble territory. According to him, such skepticism underestimates the structural and economic shifts underway. He argued that if AI ultimately captures even 10 percent of global GDP, the returns would dwarf the trillions spent building out AI capabilities today. The remark underscores his long-held conviction that generative AI, automation, and model-centric computing will redefine industrial and economic foundations.

His comments align with SoftBank’s intensified focus on advanced semiconductor development and cloud-scale compute capacity—areas that Son now views as the backbone of future global growth. Far from resembling the excesses of past technology bubbles, he framed current investment levels as insufficient relative to the magnitude of the coming transformation.

Saudi-Japan Funding Links Strengthen SoftBank’s Position

The Tokyo event also highlighted SoftBank’s increasingly close alignment with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of the largest sovereign backers of global technology investment. The PIF has injected roughly $11.5 billion into Japan since 2017, a figure it expects to climb to nearly $27 billion by 2030. Son’s first Vision Fund was famously seeded with $45 billion from the PIF, giving SoftBank significant financial ballast as it embarks on its next wave of AI commitments.

As SoftBank recalibrates its balance sheet and deploys capital into transformative infrastructure, the company remains positioned at the nexus of geopolitical capital flows, semiconductor innovation, and AI deployment. The decision to sell Nvidia may appear counterintuitive given the chipmaker’s market dominance, but Son’s framing suggests a strategic pivot toward owning—not merely participating in—the next foundational layer of AI development.