Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI).
The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed.
Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year, a person familiar with the fund’s activities said.
Photo: EPA
The Vision Fund prioritizes its returns on investment, and there is no particular pressure from Softbank to monetize its assets, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing private information. A representative of Softbank declined to comment.
At the heart of Softbank’s AI ambitions is chip designer Arm Holdings PLC. Son is gradually building a portfolio around the Cambridge, UK-based company with key industry players, seeking to catch up after largely missing a historic rally that has made Nvidia into a US$4 trillion behemoth and boosted its contract chipmaker TSMC near a US$1 trillion value.
“Nvidia is the picks and shovels for the gold rush of AI,” said Ben Narasin, founder and general partner of Tenacity Venture Capital.
Softbank’s purchase of the US company’s stock may buy more influence and access to Nvidia’s most sought-after chips, he said.
“Maybe he gets to skip the line,” he added.
Softbank should have benefited from that bet on Nvidia — at least on paper. Nvidia has gained about 90 percent in market value since hitting a year’s low in early April, while TSMC has climbed more than 40 percent.
Softbank’s market capitalization stands at about US$118 billion, a fraction of Nvidia’s US$4.4 trillion valuation and that of other tech companies most closely associated with AI progress.
The company parted with a 4.9 percent stake in Nvidia in early 2019 that would be worth more than US$200 billion today. The company’s attempts to buy back some Nvidia shares, alongside those of proxy TSMC, would help Son regain access to some of the most lucrative parts of the semiconductor supply chain.
The 67-year-old Softbank founder now seeks to play a more central role in the spread of AI through sweeping partnerships. These include the company’s US$500 billion Stargate data center foray with OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund MGX. Son is also courting TSMC and others about taking part in a US$1 trillion AI manufacturing hub in Arizona.
As Arm’s intellectual property is used to power the majority of mobile chips and is increasingly used in server chips, Softbank could carve out a unique position without being a manufacturer itself, said Richard Kaye, co-head of Japan equity strategy at Comgest Asset Management Ltd and a long-time Softbank investor.
“I think he sees himself as the natural provider of AI semiconductor technology,” he said. “What Son really wants to do is capture the upstream and the downstream of everything.”
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
Nvidia Corp’s negotiations to invest as much as US$100 billion in OpenAI have broken down, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, exposing a potential rift between two of the most powerful companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The discussions stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed concerns about the transaction, the WSJ reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deliberations. OpenAI makes the popular chatbot ChatGPT, while Nvidia dominates the market for AI processors that help develop such software. The companies announced the agreement in September last year, saying at the time that they had signed a letter of intent for a strategic
RSS