Spending $3.3 billion to heavily invest in NVIDIA and Taiwan Semiconductor! Masayoshi Son bets everything on AI chips "shovel sellers"

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Japan's SoftBank Group is significantly increasing its holdings in NVIDIA and Taiwan Semiconductor, reflecting Masayoshi Son's strategic focus on foundational tools and hardware for artificial intelligence. Regulatory documents show that SoftBank increased its NVIDIA holdings to approximately $3 billion at the end of March (doubling from $1 billion in the previous quarter), while also purchasing $330 million worth of Taiwan Semiconductor shares and $170 million in Oracle Corporation shares.

According to insiders, SoftBank's Vision Fund has liquidated nearly $2 billion in public and private assets in the first half of 2025, but emphasized that the fund independently decides on the timing of exits, with the parent company not exerting pressure to liquidate.

Chip designer Arm Holdings is becoming the core of SoftBank's AI strategy. Masayoshi Son is using this Cambridge-based company as a lever to build a portfolio by collaborating with key players in the industry chain, attempting to make up for missing out on the historic surge of NVIDIA (currently valued at $4 trillion) and Taiwan Semiconductor (nearly $1 trillion).

Ben Narasin, founding partner of Tenacity Ventures, pointed out, "NVIDIA is the shovel seller in the AI gold rush," and SoftBank's stake may grant it priority access to chip supplies, "perhaps allowing it to skip the queue."

SoftBank's earnings are expected to be substantial when it releases its quarterly report on Thursday—since the low point in early April, NVIDIA's market value has risen by about 90%, and Taiwan Semiconductor has climbed over 40%. This somewhat compensates for SoftBank's regret over prematurely selling 4.9% of its NVIDIA stake in 2019 (now worth over $200 billion).

The Vision Fund's massive losses had previously hindered SoftBank's layout in generative AI, but now, by repurchasing shares of NVIDIA and its foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor, Masayoshi Son is regaining key influence in the semiconductor supply chain.

Masayoshi Son is competing for AI dominance through grand collaborative frameworks: including building a $500 billion "Interstellar Gateway" data center with OpenAI, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi's MGX Fund; and promoting participation from Taiwan Semiconductor and others in a $1 trillion AI manufacturing center in Arizona.

Richard Kay, co-head of Japan equity strategy at Convoy Asset Management, pointed out that Arm's intellectual property covers most mobile chips and is entering the server field, allowing SoftBank to occupy a unique ecological niche without having to build its own factories.

Investors have applauded Masayoshi Son's aggressive plans, pushing SoftBank's stock price to a historic high last month. Analysts expect it to turn a profit in the June quarter, and the $6.5 billion acquisition of Ampere Computing and the $30 billion investment in OpenAI further strengthen its "AI concept stock" attributes.

However, sources close to Masayoshi Son revealed that the billionaire remains unsatisfied, believing that U.S. projects are likely to help SoftBank surpass current AI leaders and become a trillion-dollar giant.

Currently, SoftBank's stock price is still trading at a discount of about 40% to its net asset value (including a 90% stake in Arm valued at $148 billion), with its market capitalization of $118 billion being far from NVIDIA's $4.4 trillion.

Given that semiconductors have become a focal point of geopolitical tensions, Masayoshi Son, who was hindered by the U.S. government in the Arm-NVIDIA merger, is strengthening his relationship with Trump and frequently meeting with White House officials. As artificial intelligence and semiconductors become geopolitical hotspots, these efforts are now crucial. SoftBank's plan to acquire Ampere is facing an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The market is focused on what asset sale plans SoftBank will disclose in its quarterly report to support hardware investments. In June, it raised $4.8 billion by reducing its stake in T-Mobile, and CFO Yoshimasa Goto emphasized that the company's net assets reached 257 trillion yen ($1.75 billion) by the end of March, indicating ample financial reserves. In the last fiscal year, the Vision Fund exited investments in companies such as DoorDash and View, contrasting sharply with its increased holdings in semiconductor stocks.

At the June shareholders' meeting, Masayoshi Son declared, "We are laying out our AI strategy through a startup matrix," and "The goal is singular: to become the number one platform provider in the field of artificial superintelligence."