Investments · Semiconductors
SoftBank holds about $4 billion stake in Nvidia, Bloomberg reports
- Investor
- SoftBank Group (later moved to SoftBank Vision Fund) (Tokyo)
- In
- Nvidia, Santa Clara, California
- Value
- About $4B (Bloomberg)
- Status
- Reported on May 24, 2017; the stake was sold in early 2019.
- Date
- 2017-05-24
Bloomberg reported that SoftBank Group held about 4.9% of Nvidia, a stake worth about $4 billion that would make it the chipmaker's fourth-largest investor. SoftBank had said when the Vision Fund's first close was announced on May 20, 2017 that it held Nvidia shares, but a spokesman declined to confirm the size. The stake was later moved to the Vision Fund and sold in early 2019.
Why it matters
The stake tied SoftBank's artificial intelligence strategy to the leading maker of AI chips at the start of the Vision Fund.
What was reported
Bloomberg's figures were not confirmed by SoftBank, which declined to comment on the report. The Vision Fund's first-close announcement said the fund might acquire certain investments that SoftBank already held or had agreed to buy, and listed Nvidia among them.
The Vision Fund at the time
At its first close the fund had initial commitments of $93 billion from investors including Apple, Qualcomm and Foxconn, and Masayoshi Son was aiming for about $100 billion. Son said most of the fund's investments would be stakes of 20% to 40%, making SoftBank the largest shareholder in many cases.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
