SoftBank's $5.8B Nvidia stake sale stirs fresh AI bubble fears (www.thehindu.com)

SoftBank disclosed it sold all 32.1 million Nvidia shares (about $5.8 billion) in October, part of a broader cash-raising round that also included roughly $9.2 billion in T‑Mobile stock sales. The proceeds are earmarked to fund CEO Masayoshi Son’s aggressive AI agenda — notably the $500 billion “Stargate” buildout of U.S. data-center capacity and as much as $40 billion pledged toward OpenAI — and to bankroll other hyperscale infrastructure bets. The announcement knocked Nvidia shares down more than 2% and weighed on the S&P 500, coming amid other signs of strain such as CoreWeave’s revenue cut and high-profile short positions, amplifying worries that AI valuations have outpaced fundamentals after Nvidia’s roughly 1,200% three‑year surge. For the AI/ML community, the move crystallizes two tensions: enormous capital is still being marshaled to scale compute and data‑center supply (critical for training and serving large models), but investor sentiment is twitchy about froth and circular financing tied to a few dominant players. SoftBank’s pivot underlines the industry’s insatiable need for chips and infrastructure, and the uncertainty over how OpenAI will fund its roughly $1.4 trillion in purported infrastructure deals — even as it eyes a potential $1 trillion IPO — highlights systemic funding risk. Analysts also note Son’s spotty timing with Nvidia trades in the past, reminding the market that strategic reallocations can both fuel and puncture AI euphoria.