Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD) shares traded almost 2% lower before Tuesday’s opening bell after it was revealed SoftBank sold its entire stake in the chipmaker for $5.83 billion.
The Japanese conglomerate disclosed in its earnings statement that it sold 32.1 million Nvidia shares in October, alongside the sale of part of its stake in T-Mobile for $9.17 billion.
The transactions were described as part of a broader “asset monetization” strategy to raise liquidity and strengthen the company’s balance sheet, and did not reflect doubts in Nvidia’s long-term growth prospects.
“We want to provide a lot of investment opportunities for investors, while we can still maintain financial strength,” SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto said during an investor presentation. “Through those options and tools we make sure that we are ready for funding in a very safe manner.”
Despite divesting its Nvidia shares, SoftBank continues to depend on the chipmaker’s technology for several large-scale initiatives. Among them is the $500 billion Stargate project, an AI data center venture that relies heavily on Nvidia’s GPUs.
The sale comes as SoftBank reported a significant earnings surge in its fiscal second quarter of 2025, with net profit more than doubling to approximately 2.5 trillion yen (around $16.6 billion), while quarterly revenue rose to about 1.92 trillion yen, slightly above estimates.