SoftBank Group Corp. said Tuesday it sold its stake in U.S. chipmaker Nvidia last October, raising $5.8 billion to invest in other ventures, particularly artificial intelligence. The move reflects the Japanese conglomerate’s strategic pivot toward OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
SoftBank also reported a surge in its first-half profit, jumping nearly threefold from a year earlier to about 2.5 trillion yen ($13 billion) between April and September. Sales for the period rose 7.7% to 3.7 trillion yen ($24 billion).
“The AI sector is rapidly reshaping the tech landscape, and our investments reflect that shift,” SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son said in a statement. The company has already invested tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI and plans to expand AI services in Japan.
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The sale comes as Nvidia’s market value has skyrocketed. The chipmaker recently became the first company to surpass a $5 trillion valuation, fueled by its AI-focused data centers and a $100 billion investment in OpenAI.
Despite selling its shares, SoftBank maintains strong ties with Nvidia, as many of its portfolio companies rely on Nvidia technology. SoftBank also holds stakes in chipmakers Arm Holdings and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which benefit from the AI boom.
SoftBank’s stock has nearly doubled over the past year, gaining 2% on Tuesday. Nvidia shares dipped 1.3% in premarket trading after climbing 5.8% the previous day.