SoftBank Group Corp. Building issues from Nvidia Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the latest reflection of the accent put by Masayoshi Son on the tools and equipment that underpins artificial intelligence.
The Japanese technological investor increased his participation in Nvidia to around $ 3 billion by the end of March, compared to $ 1 billion in the previous quarter, according to regulatory documents. He bought about $ 330 million in TSMC shares and $ 170 million in Oracle Corp., they show.
It was then that SoftBank’s Signature Vision Fund monetized nearly $ 2 billion in public and private assets in the first half of 2025, according to a person familiar with the activities of the fund. The vision fund prioritizes its yields on investment and there is no particular SoftBank pressure to monetize their assets, said that the person, who asked not to be appointed by discussing private information. A SoftBank representative refused to comment.
At the heart of SoftBank AI ambitions is chip designer Arm Holdings PLC. Its gradually builds a portfolio around the company based in Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, with main players in the industry, seeking to catch up after having largely missed a historic rally which made Nvidia a giant of 4 billions of dollars and strengthened its manufacturer of TSMC contractual chips near a value of $ 1.
“Nvidia is the choices and the shovels of the gold rush to AI,” said Ben Narasin, founder and general partner of Tenity Venture Capital, referring to a concerted effort of the largest technological companies in the world to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to move forward. The purchase by SoftBank of the actions of the American company can buy more influence and access to the most sought-after chips in Nvidia, he said. “Maybe he can jump the line.”
Softbank, which reports quarterly results Thursday, should have benefited from this bet on Nvidia, at least on paper. Nvidia has gained around 90% in market value since it reached a year below in early April, while the TSMC climbed more than 40%.
This helps to compensate for a large part of the Nvidia post -cat rally – one of the greatest of all time. SoftBank, who was early to start betting on bets on Ai well before the seminal chatbot of Openai, separated from a 4.9% participation in Nvidia in early 2019 which was worth more than $ 200 billion today.
The paralyzing losses of the vision fund have also hampered SoftBank’s ability to be an early investor in a generative AI. The company’s attempts to buy Nvidia actions, alongside those of Proxy TSMC, would help his son find access to some of the most lucrative parts of the semiconductor supply chain.
The founder of Softbank, aged 67, is now looking to play a more central role in the propagation of AI thanks to radical partnerships. These include the incursion of the Stargate data center of $ 500 billion in softbank with OpenAi, Oracle and Abu Dhabi Backed Investment Fund MGX. Its courtyard also TSMC and others on the participation in an AI manufacturing center of $ 1 billion in Arizona.
Since the intellectual property of Arm is used to feed the majority of mobile chips and is increasingly used in server chips, SoftBank could carve out a unique position without being a manufacturer itself, according to Richard Kaye, co-responsible for the equity strategy in Japan at Comgest Management Asset and a SoftBank long-standing investor.
“I think he considers himself the natural supplier of AI semiconductors’ technology,” he said. “What the son really wants to do is capture upstream and downstream of everything.”
Investors have applauded the bold soundtracks, while analysts say they expect SoftBank to sign a swing to a net income in the June quarter. Softbank shares have marked a record last month. The planned agreement of $ 6.5 billion in softbank to acquire the US Société de Puces Ampe Computing LLC and another investment of $ 30 billion in Openai encourage investors who see the action as a means of taking the momentum of the American startup.
The son, however, remains dissatisfied, according to people close to the billionaire. His considers major projects in the United States as having the potential to help SoftBank to go beyond current AI leaders to become a business or greater business, they said.
The action continues to be negotiated at a discount approximately 40% compared to the total assets of SoftBank – which includes a participation of around 90% in the value of $ 148 billion. Softbank’s market capitalization amounts to around $ 118 billion, a fraction of the evaluation of 4.4 Billions of Nvidia dollars and that of other technological companies most closely associated with AI progress.
Sound, which in the past has seen Washington obstruct or derail fusion plans such as the Union of Arm and Nvidia, seeks to take advantage of its relationship with Donald Trump and organizes frequent meetings with White House officials. These efforts are now essential because AI and semiconductors become geopolitical flash points. Softbank’s plan to buy Ampère is faced with an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.
Paying attention to its June-trimester profits will be on other assets that SoftBank could sell to help it guarantee the liquidity it needs to double material investments. The Japanese company has so far raised around $ 4.8 billion thanks to a sale of some of its T-Mobile shares in June. Its financial director Yoshimitsu Goto cited the value of the final end of the company of 25.7 Billions of Yen (175 billion dollars), saying that the company had sufficient capital to cover its financing needs.
During the year of business ended in March, the outings of the Fund vision included Doordash Inc. and View Inc., as well as the security company Cloud Wiz Inc. and the startup of corporate software startup, even if SoftBank bought the challenges of NVIDIA, TSMC and Oracle.
“We are after an AI using a range of startups and group companies,” its shareholders told its shareholders. “We have a goal,” he said. “We will become the platform n ° 1 in super artificial intelligence.”
