SoftBank shares plunge as much as 10% after selling Nvidia stake (www.cnbc.com)

SoftBank disclosed in its earnings report that it sold 32.1 million Nvidia shares in October—disposing of its entire stake for roughly $5.83 billion—and trimmed a T‑Mobile position to raise an additional $9.17 billion. The announcement sent SoftBank Group shares tumbling as much as 10%. Executives say the proceeds will help fund a $22.5 billion investment in OpenAI (ChatGPT’s parent) and to “provide a lot of investment opportunities” while maintaining financial strength. This isn’t SoftBank’s first exit from Nvidia; its Vision Fund built a large stake in 2017 and fully divested in 2019, though the conglomerate remains commercially tied to Nvidia in other ways. For the AI/ML community, the move is significant because it reallocates major capital from a leading chip vendor to a foundational AI models company. That $22.5 billion could accelerate model R&D, large‑scale training runs, and infrastructure build‑out—driving demand for cloud GPUs and custom accelerator procurement even as SoftBank liquidated Nvidia equity. The sale may create short‑term pressure on Nvidia’s stock but doesn’t necessarily reduce long‑term hardware demand; instead it highlights a strategic preference for funding model-driven AI platforms over maintaining equity exposure to chip makers.