TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. said Tuesday that it has sold all the Nvidia Corp. shares that it owned for $5.83 billion, while it reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia
in October in a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI.SoftBank reported its profit in April-September
soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about $13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7% year-on-year to 3.7 trillion yen ($24 billion), it said.
SoftBank's fortunes tend to fluctuate because it invests in a range of ventures, including through its tech-focused Vision Funds. Those recently have paid off.
In February, its chairman Masayoshi Son joined Trump, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle in announcing a major investment of up to $500 billion in a project to develop artificial intelligence called Stargate.
SoftBank has invested tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI. The two companies also plan to provide AI services in Japan.
Selling SoftBank's stake in Nvidia reflects Son's shift in strategy and also nets his company a healthy profit thanks to the recent runup in Nvidia's market value.
Nvidia recently become the first $5 trillion company, just three months after it broke through the $4 trillion barrier.
The two companies still have strong relations since various ventures that SoftBank invests in use Nvidia technology. Gains from the sale of the Nvidia shares will free SoftBank to invest in new directions.
SoftBank also has investments in Arm Holdings and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., computer chip makers that like Nvidia are benefitting greatly from the growth of AI.
SoftBank stocks have nearly doubled in value in the past year. They gained nearly 2% Tuesday.
Nvidia's shares fell 1.3% in premarket trading early Tuesday. They jumped 5.8% on Monday.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
