Softbank Group Corp. is building stakes at Nvidia Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, the latest reflection of Masayoshi’s son on tools and hardware-based artificial intelligence.
Japanese technology investors raised their NVIDIA stake to about $3 billion at the end of March, up from $1 billion in the previous quarter, according to regulatory documents. They show it bought about $330 million worth of TSMC stock and $170 million worth of Oracle Corp.
According to a person familiar with the matter, SoftBank Signature Vision Fund earned nearly $2 billion in public and private assets in the first half of 2025. The person said Vision Fund prioritizes its investment returns, with special pressure on monetizing assets from SoftBank. SoftBank representatives declined to comment.
The core of SoftBank’s AI ambition is Chip Designer Arm Holdings Plc. The son gradually built a portfolio with major industry players in Cambridge, England, and caught up after largely missing a historic rally, which made Nvidia a $4 trillion behemoth and raised the value of its contract chip maker TSMC for $1 trillion.
“Nvidia is the draft pick for AI’s gold rush,” said Ben Narasin, founder and general partner of Stinacity Venture Capital, referring to the unanimous efforts of the world’s largest technology companies to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to succeed. He said SoftBank bought shares of U.S. companies and could buy more influence and use NVIDIA’s most popular chips. “Maybe he can skip the line.”
SoftBank reported in its quarterly earnings on Thursday and should benefit from NVIDIA’s bets, at least on paper. NVIDIA’s market value has risen about 90% since hitting a one-year low around early April, while TSMC has climbed more than 40%.
This helps make up for most of the missed NVIDIA’s rally, the largest ever. Softbank started betting on AI early on before Openai’s groundbreaking chatbots, with NVIDIA having a 4.9% stake in early 2019, and today it is worth more than $200 billion.
The brutal losses of the vision fund also hinder SoftBank’s ability to become an early investor in AI generation. The company’s attempt to buy back some NVIDIA shares as well as stocks representing TSMC will help the son regain some of the most profitable opportunities Part of the semiconductor supply chain.
The 67-year-old SoftBank founder is now trying to play a more central role in the dissemination of AI through the partnerships it has launched. These include SoftBank’s $500 billion Stargate Data Center, an investment fund supported by OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi. So are sons Courtship TSMC and others are attending the $1 trillion AI manufacturing center in Arizona.
Comgest Asset Management and longtime Softbank investor Richard Kaye said that because ARM’s intellectual property is used to power most mobile chips and is increasingly used for server chips, SoftBank can become a manufacturer itself without becoming a manufacturer itself, without becoming a manufacturer itself.
“I think he considers himself a natural provider of AI semiconductor technology,” he said. “What my son really wants to do is capture the upstream and downstream of everything.”
Investors cheer on their son’s bold plans, while analysts say they expect SoftBank to report net revenue in the June quarter. Softbank stock was a record last month. SoftBank Plan $6.5 billion The deal to acquire a $30 billion investment from U.S. chip company Ampere Computing LLC and OpenAI further encourages investors, who see the stock as a way to drive the momentum of U.S. startups.
However, according to people near the billionaire, the son is still unhappy. They say their son believes that large U.S. projects have the potential to help SoftBank surpass the current leader of AI into a trillion-dollar or larger company.
The stock continues to discount SoftBank’s total assets at about 40%, including about 90% of shares in ARM worth $148 billion. SoftBank has a market capitalization of about $118 billion, a small part of NVIDIA’s $4.4 trillion valuation, as well as the valuations of other tech companies that are most closely linked to AI progress.
The son has seen Washington baskets like “The Washington Barrier” or “The Union of Arm and Nvidia” in the past, trying to capitalize on his relationship with Donald Trump and is scheduled for frequent meetings with White House officials. Now, these efforts are crucial as AI and semiconductors become geopolitical highlights. SoftBank’s plan to buy Ampere is facing Detection by the Federal Trade Commission.
The focus of June quarterly earnings will be on other assets SoftBank may sell to help it ensure the liquidity it needs to double its hardware investment. This Japanese company has increased so far $4.8 billion Holding by selling some T-Mobile shares in June. Its chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto quoted the company’s final net worth of 25.7 trillion yen ($175 billion), saying the company has enough funds to meet its funding needs.
Vision Fund’s exits include Doordash Inc. and View Inc. during the business year ended March, also Cloud Security Company Wiz Inc. and Enterprise Software Startup Peak, even though Softbank bought shares in Nvidia, TSMC and Oracle.
“We are using AI after we’re using AI,” his son told shareholders in June. “We have a goal,” he said. “We will be the number one platform for artificial super intelligence.”
